DMB nominations, size and quorum

[Iain Lane]

On Mon, Jul 17, 2017 at 02:51:24PM +0100, Robie Basak wrote:
> Instead, what I propose is that we reduce quorum, and the +1s required
> to get an action approved[2].

Disclaimer: I'm not a DMB member and I don't have particular insight
into the current dynamics that have led to this becoming a problem.

Did you think about instead requiring attendence from DMB members? If a
member doesn't attend N out of M meetings, then they are removed from
the board and an election is triggered. During this period, the board
will have fewer members so its quorum requirement may be reduced.

The idea is that signing up to the DMB is a commitment to attend its
regular meetings, and if you can't meet that commitment then you
shouldn't be able to impede the work of the board simply by your
inactivity. I know it can be hard to recruit new DMB members, but I
think it's OK to temporarily reduce the size of the board in order to
allow it to make decisions rather than having its quorum requirement be
inflated by inactive members.

If a member really is inactive then the current situation means that you
have to gather a vote to override their theoretical vote that in reality
they aren't going to ever cast. I think this is quite unhelpful and it
would be good to resolve it by actually removing members from the board
rather than routing around them.

(As for definitions: 'quorum' to me means the number of votes required
to make a binding decision, i.e. ceil(#(DMB)/2). This is also the size
of the group that is required to make decisions on behalf of the whole
board if no other members are present and the group is unanimous, i.e.
the minimum meeting attendance that can possibly make decisions.)

Cheers,

-- 
Iain Lane                                  [ iain at orangesquash.org.uk ]
Debian Developer                                   [ laney at debian.org ]
Ubuntu Developer                                   [ laney at ubuntu.com ]
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