> On 11 Jul 2016, at 16:35, Meredith Whittaker <[email protected]> 
> wrote:
> 
> So, what do you suggest?

It’s not up to me (or anyone else) to say how you should run your WG Meredith. 
That’s for you and your WG co-chairs to decide in consultation with the WG.

However given where we are, here’s what I would do if I was in your shoes.

Just reset the co-chair appointment process and start again.

Neither of the two suggested time-lines has been met. The WG is confused and 
uncertain how to proceed. The agreed process wasn’t followed and things have 
gone off the rails. The best thing for everyone now is to pretend that never 
happened and start from scratch once more. There’s no point apportioning blame 
or playing “he said, she said” about what happened since that would not help.

I think the way to proceed would be for the WG Chair to announce on the mailing 
list that 1? 2? co-chairs need to be appointed and invite candidates to step 
forward or be nominated. The WG chair should not go beyond that by naming any 
personal preferences or “qualified candidates”. This is for the WG and the 
candidates to decide for themselves. Anyone who wants to be considered must 
also make that known on the list. Discussions then take place on the mailing 
list about suitability of these candidates and the WG hopefully converges on 
consensus. If/when a consensus emerges, the WG Chair makes a judgement about 
that and announces their decision on the list. This is pretty much what the 
agreed appointment process says.

That agreed process allows 2 weeks for volunteers to come forward. Then there’s 
two weeks after that for the WG Chair(s) to announce on the list who the 
candidates are and invite the WG to express their approval or otherwise of the 
presented candidates. Two weeks after that the WG has hopefully arrived at 
consensus and the WG Chair(s) announces the result. If the process is followed, 
it should produce a happy outcome. Famous last words...

Starting this process right now is probably unwise because this six-week long 
exercise would run until the end of August while most of Europe is on holiday. 
OTOH, starting things once the summer holidays are over means nobody could be 
appointed until mid-October at the earliest. So it may be an idea to first ask 
the WG if it wants to wait that long or get things under way sooner. This will 
determine when to open the floodgates for nominees.

When that announcement is made on the list for interested parties, it would be 
helpful to clearly state the dates when “nominations” close, when the 
announcement of the candidates is due and when a final decision is expected 
from the WG. This should hopefully concentrate minds.


hope this helps



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