Agenda versus Applications: Discrepancy needing a solution

[Adrien Nader]

Hi,

On Thu, Jan 23, 2025, Robie Basak wrote:
> I appreciate that it's important to make sure that we don't
> disenfranchise applicants by inappropriately booking slots ahead of
> time.
> 
> But what's inappropriate? If we don't want people to book slots ahead of
> their application being ready, then I think we should be explicit about
> that, and what exactly "ready" means. If we're going to do any adjusting
> of specific applicants, I'd prefer to see that done under some principle
> that is first well documented and understood.
> 
> But also, is there really a problem that needs solving here?

As Simon mentioned in the other branch of this thread, we've also been
discussing it a bit over IRC.

He was going through applications in advance (which is definitely
great!) and was surprised to see missing pages. I reckon that's not very
engaging.

On the other hand, I had decided to select a slot because not having a
clear date doesn't help prepare things.

I think it's clear that we were approaching this from two opposite
positions.
The application should be ready before the meeting but DMB members
should review applications before the meeting AFAIU. But these two
"before" could happen in any order. It's probably better to not have
something strict but I think indicative delays could be welcome by
applicants.

This question simply didn't exist when delays were shorter but now they
have increased quite a lot (is it only temporary? I don't know).

> Theoretically all applicants should be well connected by the time they
> are ready to apply, so can they speak to each other and figure it out
> themselves, without us needing to impose rules?
> 
> I note that every applicant currently listed is a Canonical employee. In
> this case, I feel even more that they should be able to juggle
> priorities between themselves, or if they need the DMB to provide some
> authoritiative direction, to request it.

The applicants who could be moved earlier if my application or Agathe's
application were removed, actually went for 19:00 UTC meetings while we
went for 16:00 UTC. They may have a preference for 16:00 UTC instead but
I can't speak for them.

Agathe had actually reached out to me and Florent about the schedule and
one of the things that became clear during our discussion was that the
page was difficult to read without making mistakes.

That got me thinking and I proposed making changes on mattermost but got
no answer; this time rather than trying to describe changes, I went
ahead and changed the page. If the change is unwelcome, we can easily
revert it.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DeveloperMembershipBoard/Agenda

-- 
Adrien