[IAEP] Sugar Labs Community Response Team

[James Cameron]

The situation is troubling, and affects my enjoyment of source code
maintenance.  ;-)

After resignation of ombudsman, the response has been;

- Walter thanked Bert for his help,

- Laura is sad for Bert's decision, and asks to replace ombudsman with
  a response team,

- Adam says resignation is tragic beyond words,

- Sameer thanked Bert,

- Samson thanked Bert, and is sad to see him go.

We have not heard from Lionel or Ignacio.  By majority of those
present, the board both thanked Bert and regrets the resignation.

There's no hurry.  While we wait for the response team proposal to be
discussed, the board is the default for resolving issues that would
otherwise be resolved by an ombudsman.  This is made clear by the Wiki
"feel free to contact off-list any member of the oversight board in
confidence".

In general, when a board is responsible for something, they are
"jointly and severally" responsible, which means they are responsible
as a whole, while at the same time individually responsible.

For conflict or misunderstanding within a board, there is no outside
party to help, apart from the courts.  In my experience, board members
will work privately to resolve their individual disputes and
miscommunications, and if that doesn't work they resign rather than be
jointly responsible with others they cannot trust.  This is because a
board member remains responsible for a board decision even if they did
not assent.

Putting this another way; a board member cannot avoid responsibility
for a decision made by the board.  Last opportunity to avoid is by
raising a point of order to resign just before a vote is put.

It is this inability to avoid responsibility that makes boards so
powerful, and yet so dangerous to themselves.  We should be thankful
we have a board!

-- 
James Cameron
http://quozl.netrek.org/