On Tue, 18 Dec 2007, Keith M Wesolowski wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 19, 2007 at 01:31:31AM +0900, Jim Grisanzio wrote:
>
>>> Of course, the initial CCs are free to resign
>>
>> Why don't *you* resign, Keith?
>
> I've thought about this a great deal over the past 2 months. I have a
> number of good answers, and your question deserves a thorough
> response. I also have a number of doubts; I've never been less
> enthusiastic about continuing my service.
>
> It's not at all clear to me why anyone would want a seat on this board
> unless he or she believed the OGB to be powerless figureheads; I can't
> immediately think of anything I've suggested doing other than simply
> placing rubber stamps on noncontroversial Group instantiations that
> has not required me to defend a rational - often board-approved -
> position from howls of protest and derision. In between such dustups,
> of course, has been a steady stream of low-level attacks on the board
> as a do-nothing entity. This irony is too bitter to be savoured. Why
> don't I resign? A flippant answer might be "By Jove, why *don't* I?!"
>
> In this particular case, we didn't even take the action that you
> presumably find both wrong-headed and personally offensive. After a
> short debate, I agreed with that decision, which would no doubt have
> been unanimous had we bothered to do our duty by voting formally (more
> likely I would have been granted leave to withdraw it). But here we
> are anyway.
>
> Enough self-pity. I plan to spend some time while traveling during
> the holiday week writing both a justification for remaining and a
> letter of resignation. The one in which I believe more strongly will
> be posted here when I return.
Yes - enough self-pity! ;-)
Clearly an active OGB that makes tough decisions will never be able to
please "all of the people all of the time". And clearly, we are but
human and humans make mistakes. And ... "a man who never made a
mistake, never made anything"!
With that philscopy out of the way, my personal "standard" for mistake
making, is that one is allowed two (major) mistakes per calendar year!
Luckily, this is December and I have yet to make my first mistake for
2007! Yeah - right! :) And if you believe that BS, I have a house
flipping opportunity in California that you can't possible loose money
on....! :)
Yes the website CG decision was flawed and Alan Burlison, and other
highly regarded OpenSolaris contributors, have some justification for
feeling poorly treated.
But... I don't think that any OGB member should resign over a
"mistake(s)" - regardless of how "big" a mistake it was. That would
set a bad precedent and discourage current, or future OGB members,
from making 'tough' decisions. It would also foster future OGBs that
are obsessed with zero-risk decision making and relegate them into a
"do nothing" role (following the rule of "a man who never made a
mistake" above).
So - Keith - tough it out. Please. As my (helo) flight instructor
used to say: (you have a problem) "*work* *the* *problem*".
Kudos to you Keith for expressing your sense of your own limitations
during your current OGB term - the same honesty/humility would be
welcome from other OGB members. And if it is not forthcoming, then
this sends a clear message to the electorate.
Regards,
Al Hopper Logical Approach Inc, Plano, TX. al at logical-approach.com
Voice: 972.379.2133 Fax: 972.379.2134 Timezone: US CDT
OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB) Member - Apr 2005 to Mar 2007
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/ogb/ogb_2005-2007/
Graduate from "sugar-coating school"? Sorry - I never attended! :)
