Feb 17 as a term end date sounds good. We don’t necessarily have to wait until Feb 17. If we want to move on this sooner, the next Chair could serve a slightly longer term, ending on Feb 17 2022.
> On Sep 29, 2020, at 11:25 AM, Wes McKinney <wesmck...@gmail.com> wrote: > > This sounds reasonable to me. We are approaching our 5 year > anniversary as an Apache project (on February 17, 2021) and I have > thought that it would make sense to rotate PMC chairs at some point, > but making it an annual thing makes things even simpler. > > For what it's worth, in this project the PMC chair (Jacques) has > mainly only had to exercise the unique responsibilities of the role in > the submission of board reports and in giving PMC karma to new PMC > members. There have been a handful of instances where the PMC has > engaged with the board beyond our routine reports over certain > matters, but overall IMHO we've had a generally healthy dynamic in our > governance. > > On Tue, Sep 29, 2020 at 2:12 AM Julian Hyde <jh...@apache.org> wrote: >> >> There has been some discussion in the Arrow PMC about rotating the PMC >> Chair (also known as the project VP) every year. I wanted to raise the >> topic here for discussion among Arrow committers and within the >> broader Arrow community. >> >> Quite a few Apache projects have adopted a policy where they choose a >> new Chair on a regular basis. This has several advantages. First, it >> helps avoid the perception that the project has a BDFL [1]. Second, it >> broadens the skills of the people in the project, exposing them to the >> workings of the Apache Board. Third, it can drive cultural change in >> the project, because different leaders have different styles. >> >> To be clear, a PMC Chair has very little actual power. Their main role >> is to keep the Board informed, by submitting quarterly reports. >> Decisions are made by the PMC, and the Chair's vote has no more power >> than any other vote. But the perception is that the Chair speaks with >> authority and sets the agenda, and perception tends to become reality. >> >> In Calcite, for example, we have adopted a policy (without writing it >> down as bylaws) where we choose a new Chair around the project's >> anniversary, in October every year. Around the same time, the Chair >> starts a “State of the Project" discussion thread where we discuss the >> challenges and opportunities for the project. It has worked extremely >> well. We now have 5 current and former chairs, all of whom are active >> in the project, and all of whom can speak authoritatively for the >> project as "Former PMC chair, Apache Calcite”. >> >> I think such a scheme would be of benefit to Arrow. What do you all think? >> >> Julian >> >> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_dictator_for_life
