Spi-general Digest, Vol 159, Issue 2

Tue Dec 10 14:02:03 UTC 2019

Hello all,

I'm not sure I'm allowed to comment on this - I have not been able to join
SPI formally as the "Apply" link under Membership on the website it broken.

I agree with rescinding the positions of SPI Board Advisors.  It's
problematic to allow these (all male) people to continue on in those
positions, when people like myself who are very interested can't even join
SPI as a member.  It's offensive, and as Martin pointed out, doesn't
reflect reality.  It's very misleading with regards to their role in/with
SPI.  Why would they continue to have these titles if they're not
interested/not doing anything special? I would infer that advisors for a
project are consulted, and if they were not, I would question the entire
communications and governance of the project (which I am now doing). I
would recommend SPI brings on productive/interested advisors if they will
continue recognizing these positions/titles, and to actually consult the
advisors.  If the current advisors want to play an active role in
consultation, then they could keep their title/role.  I would like to put
my name forward as the Diversity and Inclusion Advisor, if advisors will
remain.

With regards to Filipus's comment, "Nor would I consider gender imbalance
as a problem per se": Gender imbalance is a huge problem in SPI, please
stop denying that this is a massive, glaring problem, and looks terrible
for SPI's current optics in terms of inclusiveness and diversity.  Again,
as an outsider (who also happens to be female) I can honestly say that SPI
looks, from the outside, to be a cis-white-middle-aged-male-debian "Boys'
club".  Gender imbalance is absolutely a problem per se, as is the lack of
other types of diversity.

Sincerely,
Katie McMillan

On Tue, Dec 10, 2019 at 7:00 AM <spi-general-request at lists.spi-inc.org>
wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Re: Proposed resolution - rescind position of SPI board
>       advisors (Martin Michlmayr)
>    2. Re: Proposed resolution - rescind position of SPI board
>       advisors (Luca Filipozzi)
>    3. Re: Proposed resolution - rescind position of SPI board
>       advisors (Bdale Garbee)
>    4. Re: Proposed resolution - rescind position of SPI board
>       advisors (Martin Michlmayr)
>    5. Re: Proposed resolution - rescind position of SPI board
>       advisors (Filipus Klutiero)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2019 22:36:06 +0200
> From: Martin Michlmayr <tbm at cyrius.com>
> To: Tim Potter <tpot at frungy.org>
> Cc: spi-general at lists.spi-inc.org
> Subject: Re: Proposed resolution - rescind position of SPI board
>         advisors
> Message-ID: <20191209203606.GA29219 at jirafa.cyrius.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> * Tim Potter <tpot at frungy.org> [2019-12-09 20:17]:
> > Hi everyone. One item discussed at a recent meeting of the SPI board was
> > concerning the position of Board Advisors. Many years ago Board Advisors
> > served a useful purpose but have not been used in a very long time. It is
> > proposed in this resolution[1] to rescind the positions of SPI Board
> Advisors.
>
> I think there should be some rationale in the resolution as to why,
> i.e. that this is not a reduction in transparency but a reflection
> that monthly SPI board meetings are open and that everyone is
> invited to participate (rather than limiting input to some special
> advisors).
>
> --
> Martin Michlmayr
> https://www.cyrius.com/
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2019 22:49:48 +0000
> From: Luca Filipozzi <lfilipoz at spi-inc.org>
> To: spi-general at lists.spi-inc.org
> Subject: Re: Proposed resolution - rescind position of SPI board
>         advisors
> Message-ID: <20191209224948.menxx5kgkkwrt7hb at snafu.emyr.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> On Mon, Dec 09, 2019 at 10:36:06PM +0200, Martin Michlmayr wrote:
> > * Tim Potter <tpot at frungy.org> [2019-12-09 20:17]:
> > > Hi everyone. One item discussed at a recent meeting of the SPI board
> was
> > > concerning the position of Board Advisors. Many years ago Board
> Advisors
> > > served a useful purpose but have not been used in a very long time. It
> is
> > > proposed in this resolution[1] to rescind the positions of SPI Board
> Advisors.
> >
> > I think there should be some rationale in the resolution as to why,
> > i.e. that this is not a reduction in transparency but a reflection
> > that monthly SPI board meetings are open and that everyone is
> > invited to participate (rather than limiting input to some special
> > advisors).
>
> That plus:
> - (1) we don't actually reach out to the advisors for input (as far as
>   I've seen since I was elected a few years ago)
> - (2) if we want input from someone, we can just ask them without
>   appointing them as an advisor
>
> --
> Luca Filipozzi
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 09 Dec 2019 15:59:07 -0700
> From: Bdale Garbee <bdale at gag.com>
> To: Tim Potter <tpot at frungy.org>, spi-general at lists.spi-inc.org
> Subject: Re: Proposed resolution - rescind position of SPI board
>         advisors
> Message-ID: <87blshyukk.fsf at gag.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Tim Potter <tpot at frungy.org> writes:
>
> > Hi everyone. One item discussed at a recent meeting of the SPI board was
> > concerning the position of Board Advisors. Many years ago Board Advisors
> > served a useful purpose but have not been used in a very long time. It is
> > proposed in this resolution[1] to rescind the positions of SPI Board
> > Advisors.
>
> It's not clear to me why you need to rescind the resolution instead of
> just continuing to not actually appoint or seek advice from existing
> appointees.  What's the problem you're actually trying to solve?
>
> Bdale
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2019 01:19:03 +0200
> From: Martin Michlmayr <tbm at cyrius.com>
> To: Bdale Garbee <bdale at gag.com>
> Cc: spi-general at lists.spi-inc.org, Tim Potter <tpot at frungy.org>
> Subject: Re: Proposed resolution - rescind position of SPI board
>         advisors
> Message-ID: <20191209231903.GB29219 at jirafa.cyrius.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> * Bdale Garbee <bdale at gag.com> [2019-12-09 15:59]:
> > It's not clear to me why you need to rescind the resolution instead of
> > just continuing to not actually appoint or seek advice from existing
> > appointees.  What's the problem you're actually trying to solve?
>
> Make sure reality is reflected.
>
> The annual report lists the advisors, but they haven't been consulted
> in years, so imho it makes sense to reflect that.  It also creates
> more balance between projects (why is the Debian project leader always
> an advisor?)
>
> (For the record, I'm not on the board and can't speak for SPI.  But I
> brought this up when I was on the board and had the action item to
> write a resolution, which unfortunately I never did.)
> --
> Martin Michlmayr
> https://www.cyrius.com/
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2019 20:12:04 -0500
> From: Filipus Klutiero <chealer at gmail.com>
> To: spi-general at lists.spi-inc.org
> Subject: Re: Proposed resolution - rescind position of SPI board
>         advisors
> Message-ID: <f2696ab9-4131-e1a3-ad1f-5851abf7ab16 at gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
>
> Hi,
>
> Le 2019-12-09 ? 18:19, Martin Michlmayr a ?crit?:
> > * Bdale Garbee <bdale at gag.com> [2019-12-09 15:59]:
> >> It's not clear to me why you need to rescind the resolution instead of
> >> just continuing to not actually appoint or seek advice from existing
> >> appointees.  What's the problem you're actually trying to solve?
> > Make sure reality is reflected.
> >
> > The annual report lists the advisors, but they haven't been consulted
> > in years, so imho it makes sense to reflect that.
>
>
> I find it quite natural in a mostly open project like this one that
> advisors are not explicitly consulted. I would not infer from a presence
> in such an SPI advisor list that a person is explicitly consulted.
>
>
> >    It also creates
> > more balance between projects (why is the Debian project leader always
> > an advisor?)
>
> I do not see balance between projects (whatever that means) as a goal.
> Nor would I consider gender imbalance as a problem per se. To discuss
> genders, the problem I could see is a lack of feminine presence. But I
> expelling productive males would be a costly solution to that, if it can
> be one.
>
> I never heard about advisor creating any kind of imbalance (though I
> must say I was also unaware of their existence).
>
>
> That being said, I have no strong opinion on this, though if we don't
> publish a list of current advisors, as seems to be the case, I would
> tend to support abolition.
>
> >
> > [...]
>
> --
> Filipus Klutiero
> http://www.philippecloutier.com
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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> End of Spi-general Digest, Vol 159, Issue 2
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