Stepping down from the IRC Council

[Matthew East]

Hi Lorenzo,

While I echo all of Daniel's comments in his earlier response, I'd
like to add a couple of points here myself.

On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 12:22 AM, Lorenzo J. Lucchini <ljlbox at tiscali.it> wrote:
> While I was starting to feel a bit more comfortable lately, I definitely
> believe there don't need to be so many members in the IRC Council, so I'll
> pass the ball.

As far as I am aware, the IRC Council had 5 members when it was set
up. The complaint that 5 members is excessive or inappropriate has
never been made to the Community Council so it was a surprise to me to
read this, but for what it's worth, I think that it's healthy to have
*at least* five members on a Council such as this one. We can of
course discuss it further if you think this is a genuine problem and
care to put forward some reasons for your statement.

> I also must admit that I've been feeling, in the past weeks, like there were
> debates ongoing and decisions being made about the IRC Council without the
> IRC Council, or at least myself, being in the least invited or involved; I
> may be mistaken, but I think this email I'm now sending was partly indirectly
> instigated.

{snip}

> Feelings of secrecy, of things "being done behind one's back", really don't
> help, and lack of communication fuels such feelings; trying to "fix" it with
> a sudden burst of communication, on the other hand, may easily be felt
> as "stomping on feet".

For the purpose of the future relationship between the IRC and
Community Councils, it's worth just clarifying that this is a complete
conspiracy theory and has no basis whatsoever. In July, the IRC
Council itself put forward the need to increase its members because
Seveas had just left the Council and you were perceived to be
inactive. The process of nomination of potential new members was done
on an open basis and the IRC Council put forward recommendations for
the individual candidates, who were considered and recently approved
by the Community Council. The process certainly shouldn't have taken
as long as it did, but there was nothing secret or private about it.

Lorenzo, you are of course free to leave a Council or any group in the
Ubuntu community when you decide to do so, but it shouldn't be on the
basis of a misunderstanding like the one I've described above. If you
have to leave, let it be for genuine reasons.

-- 
Matthew East
http://www.mdke.org
gnupg pub 1024D/0E6B06FF