I really don't understand (but could be a my limit) the needs to exit as soon as possible with the 1.3
There are actually some efforts underway that depend on a final 1.3 release (specifically, some projects, presentations, and articles). We also need to do releases periodically to maintain visibility as well as to continue to streamline our understanding of the Apache process.
i think more in general, as niclas said, as a team we need some more coordination / discussion of things, and as my opinion we should learn to work better as a team
I would suggest that you try to monitor JIRA more closely. It is our primary tool for tracking progress and priorities.
