Short List Process

[Daniel Holbach]

Hello everybody,

please note that [1] is still under discussion and I was about to ask
all of you for feedback after a first round of feedback from the CC.
Seems like Nathan was a bit quicker. :-)

On 21.02.2010 19:50, Nathan Handler wrote:
> In many elections that have taken place in the community, there has
> been a stage where some council is tasked with creating a short list
> of nominees. The criteria and methods used to generate such short
> lists are kept private. I was wondering what sorts of things other
> council members look for when tasked with generating such a short
> list. It might be useful to publish some bullets to provide some
> assistance to teams trying to hold an election (maybe add a link to
> the suggestions from [1]).

I think it's important to be clear about the fact that some kind of
short-listing is going to happen. It's also good to mention the expected
number of nominees. So if the announcement contains something like "we
have 4 open seats on XYZ Board and we're looking for something like 10
nominees" it will result in less raised eyebrows afterwards. In previous
re-staffing processes we could have been clearer about that. In any case
this shouldn't result in "hard and fast" rules as you don't want to be
in a position where you have more strong candidates than expected and
have to reject them.

The actual process of short-listing in my eyes is pretty straight-forward:

 - suitability: based on feedback or the description in the nomination
   mail, check how closely nominees meet expectations and are likely to
   fulfill the responsibilities
 - experience: sometimes it's easy to see who has little or not enough
   experience in the Ubuntu community in general or that particular part
   of the community
 - availability: in some cases it's clear that some person does a lot
   of great work, but they're already stretched thin and there are lots
   of things they are expected to take care of
 - personal experience: of course your immediate experience with the
   nominees will be important too.

Anything else?

Have a great day,
 Daniel