On 12/13/19 2:14 PM, Tim Bell wrote:
One possible option for the future would be to provide observer status for the board meetings. This would allow interested parties to listen in and follow the activities. My experience of open source project board meetings is that this also helps for those who might be interested to get involved in project governance to understand the discussions (and in some cases determine there are other areas they would prefer to devote their efforts:-)
Hi Tim
As it happens, Rich Bowen and I have been talking through an idea for something like an advisory council that would be involved in discussions during a portion of a Board meeting, for much the similar purpose you describe. This is an idea that has come up a few times from various Directors over the last several years.
The item didn't make it on the Dec agenda because we're still working up the proposal; I think Jan is likely. My plan is to put out the proposal here prior to the meeting to get some initial feedback on how it's structured and would begin.
My personal thinking is to follow the iterative opening-up method -- start with an invited group of people in a closed but public agenda/minutes session; do that for a period of time such as 6 months; then see when we might transition to adding more ways to observe in real time or via recording.
This is all about balancing the needs of the various stakeholders, which range from small to large end users, upstream projects dependent on CentOS in various ways, Red Hat engineering and product groups that work upstream and downstream from CentOS, the various SIGs, ISVs, IHVs, and all their network of relationships, and so forth. Out of simplicity and an abundance of caution we got this started on a private-only track 6 years ago, and deeply appreciate the patience of folks as we untangle old and present needs into better leadership.
Best,
- Karsten