These are good ideas, Hugh. The Bylaws actually allows for this ... On 8/3/15 11:54 AM, Hugh Cayless wrote:
I've mentioned in the past that I'd like to see, besides the elected body of Council members, a group of committers who serve in much the same way as Council members but are there because they've been appointed and are willing to contribute. Committers might be subscribed to the Council mailing list, participate (as available) on teleconferences, and come to F2F meetings (perhaps subject to budgeting). They would be identified as Committers by the TEI—i.e. they would be listed on the website and could put it on their CVs. There's some precedent for this, of course: we've drafted Lou in the past when he wasn't technically on Council. My point is that, while former Council members don't lose their commit privileges now, they do get removed from the Council list, and are not included in meetings anymore, nor are they recognized in any way, so they lose the incentive to continue to contribute, with the result that they stop. That's not to say that people can't just serve their time on Council and then move on to other things, but that valuable, interested contributors should have a means to continue their work and should be recognized for doing so.
Does this sound in any way sensible? What should be the benefits of being a Committer? How would they be appointed? What role(s) would they play? Should they be former Council members, or could we draft anyone (provided they have the ability and desire to contribute of course)?
What do you all think? Obviously this would involve some rule changes and I assume we'd have to involve the Board, etc...
The TEI Bylaws say this about membership on the Council: The Technical Council shall consist of eleven (11) Council Members elected by the membership, as described in Article II. Additional non-voting Council Members may be appointed or co-opted as necessary for the efficient conduct of business. Only Council Members elected by the membership as described in Article II shall be eligible to vote in Technical Council decisions. Lou has been appointed in such a capacity in the past; we could simply begin calling such people "Committers". It's up to Council who to include on the tei-council list, so there's no problem there! Kevin