leadership (re)fresh

[Paul W. Frields]

On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 09:33:14AM -0800, Karsten Wade wrote:
> It's long past the time for me to step back from being the
> leader/chair for the Docs Project.  Time to give some other
> enthusiastic people a chance to steer this ship.  I am still going to
> be a Docs Project contributor, offering my emeritus leader opinions
> from the sidelines.

I think everyone should recognize how much time and effort you've
devoted to doing this over the past several years.  You mentored me
when I started, and it's been a constant learning experience since (in
the best sense).

[...snip...]
> Last year+ we started to have an election for the Fedora Documentation
> Steering Committee (FDSCo) but didn't have enough people to really
> make an election.  Elected steering/leadership is a requirement[1] to be
> a Fedora sub-project.
> 
> The existing steering committee decided to suspend the elections
> process in favor of a looser organization.  We remembered that most
> people who came to the original steering committee felt empowered to
> take charge, and feared that a stale FDSCo would discourage new
> leaders/doers.
> 
> At the present time, we need to recreate that leadership structure.
> One reason is to continue as a representative sub-project with clearly
> recognized leadership.  Then a new leader for Docs can arise to bring
> fresh passion and ideas to the role.

I think having a clear leader for Docs is more important than
establishing a steering committee.  As our participating community
members have shown, any of them is capable of listening carefully,
forming consensus, and making good decisions.  What we need most now
is momentum, and as that increases along with the ranks of Docs
contributors, we can worry about an election process and a steering
committee.  Right now, we need someone to be accountable for the
overall direction and progress of the Docs group, with help at the
task level from all of us who are participating or want to start doing
so.

Hopefully it goes without saying, but this is just my opinion as a
Docs contributor.  The larger Docs community should decide how to
provide the potential for positive, forward momentum.

-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
  http://redhat.com/   -  -  -  -   http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
  irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listman.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/attachments/20090121/9a1042e8/attachment.sig>