On Sat, Oct 17, 2015 at 11:59 AM, Mitchell Baker <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hello > > Benjamin Smedberg pinged me to say that he would find it useful if I were > to implement the idea of Emeritus Module Owners. I also suspect this > would help existing module owners feel recognized and thus better about > passing on ownership when they should. Thanks to Benjamin for the push to > get this done. > > So I'm proposing a new module: Emeritus Module Owners. I'm proposing > this is a very factual status, and not a qualitative measure of how well > one did performed the role. The latter seems a receipt for trouble and > then paralysis. > > Here the proposal: > > 1. Description of the role of Emeritus Module Owners. I propose adding > this description to the Mozilla Modules and Module Owners page at > https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/governance/policies/module-ownership/ > > > An Emeritus Module Owner is a former module owner who has handed over > ownership to someone new. The ability to develop new leaders is important > to health of Mozilla and our mission. It’s also very important to > recognize when someone else is the best leader of an area or activity that > one has previously owned, and then to transfer authority smoothly. This is > how we will remain robust and relevant as an organization that outlives > any one of us. > > The status of Emeritus Module Owner is a factual status. It is not a > qualitative decision about the quality of one’s service as a Module Owner, > or about the effectiveness of how ownership of the Module was passed on. > > On the other hand, Emeritus Module Owners have experienced a very > particular and important part of the a Module's cycle of activities -- new > leaders gaining authority. And of course, the quality of how an Emeritus > Module owner passes on ownership is an important part of his or her legacy > with the Module. Emeritus Module Owners will vary in their skill in > developing and executing a succession plan. When those sort of qualitative > understandings are needed then other owners, peers and contributors to the > Module should be consulted. > > 2. Template for Directory of Emeritus Module Owners. > > Module Name: > Date became the module owner: > Date stopped being the module owner: > Prior module owner (if any): > Successor module owner (if any, some modules may have a natural > lifespan): > > > 3. And actually, I see that at some point we made a "Former Module > Owners" description at our list of project roles, but we haven't done more > with it that I know of. ( > https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/governance/roles/). I propose > deleting the paragraph at this page. Point 1 above adds Emeritus Module > Owners to the description of the Module system which puts all the info re > module owners in one place. > > 4. Implementation Topics: > a. Over time there are a large number of Emeritus Module Owners. In fact, > success in building mozilla into a long term (say 100 year) organization > requires this. We expect we will probably end up categorizing our Emeritus > Module Owners by the year in which module ownership was passed on, e.g., > “the cohort of 2015.” > > b. Populating the list. We have a wiki page, which can be edited and > added to by anyone, but we require that additions be made either by the > previous or the subsequent module owner, and not by the person > themselves. That provides much of the necessary checking and > confirmation in the very act of editing. > > For example, say I am a potential EMO. I would then need to find the > person who made me a MO or the person who succeeded me, and ask them to > make the edit. This would involve negotiating the correct values for the > fields between the two people, and the other person would then make the > edit, thereby confirming the agreement of the two parties. > This works much better than having people add themselves, and incorporates > some fact checking. (Thanks to Gerv for thinking up this mechanism) > I wholeheartedly support the nature of this proposal, which is all about preserving deserved recognition and respecting people. My only suggestion is why stop at module owners. Can we find a way to recognize emeritus peers as well? As a module owner, I've always found it difficult to ask people to rescind their peer status because the public record of their achievement and role is practically lost. I feel like I'm asking someone to erase their name and accomplishments from history. And just removing them from the wiki to avoid that exchange isn't a compassionate alternative (it can even be passive aggressive). For a while, some modules on the wiki listed emeritus peers. I'm almost certain I added this attribution for a few build peers when I asked them to rescind peer status after a long inactivity period. (Credit for starting this convention belongs to someone else and I'm not sure who). Sadly, this emeritus data was lost from the wiki a year or two ago (I suspect it had to do with the refactor to the more formal wiki templates we now employ.) I'd love to see it return in addition to emeritus module owners recognition. gps _______________________________________________ governance mailing list [email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/governance
