[H-GEN] My nomination for President

[Russell Stuart]

On Thu, 2009-08-13 at 13:45 +0800, matheist76 at westnet.com.au wrote:
> The primary reason is that they contain contact details of both Exec
> members and other people that the Exec talk to.

Did I mention private Wiki pages recently?  In any case, you'll get no
objection from me on keeping Wiki pages with account numbers, passwords
and personal details private.  I could imagine a few members would have
a bit to say if we just published whatever personal details we had of
theirs willy-nilly.

If people want to put contact details up on the Wiki, they can do that
on their home page.  In fact I think doing that is a great idea.  I did
it some time ago, see: http://www.humbug.org.au/RussellStuart

I know I said there should be a list of financial members on the Wiki.
This was only because we need such a list on meeting nights so we know
who can close.  The list I envisaged with be just be a list of Wiki
login names: RussellStuart, MatthewFranklin, GregBlack and so on.  Such
a list could be made visible only to people who had an account on the
Wiki and logged in, although I don't understand the motivations for
doing so.

> I personally have an issue with that as I am no Sys Admin and yet I am
> in the position that you would propose to change.

Perhaps you aren't aware of how SysAdmin'ing Excalibur is done now.  I
don't mean how it is supposed to be done.  I mean how it is really being
done.  There are a group of people with direct access to the box:
Robert, Greg, Brad, Stephen, James, and probably others.  They all have
done work on the box the past few months, when they felt the urge.  Some
times things get discussed extensively before changes are made - but not
with everyone.  Other times people "just do it", without discussing it
at all.

When it is operating at its best this informal system it is very good.
Things get discussed in inordinate detail for days on end, consensus is
reached, and work is done.  But it has its downsides:

- You, probably the Exec in general, and certainly the membership at
large aren't aware of these discussions when they do happen.  This is
*NOT* because anybody goes out of their way to hide them, or because of
any deliberate attempt to set up a cabal.  It's just because they happen
where most Humbug's don't hang out or aren't aware of - either the
SysAdmin list or IRC.  Setting up an open mailing list should go some
way towards fixing this.  Electing a head honcho who insists on things
get posted to the mailing list so he can write his report to the
committee would go a long way towards fixing it.

- It is very difficult for new blood to get into this group, primarily
because you have to be in the know to be even aware of it.  This is
because of its informal nature.  This informality is the hangover from
the past I keep referring to - the thing I think needs changing.
Formalising it, by electing someone at each AGM makes it visible.

- Although we have lots of people helping out, when it comes to the
pointy end of the stick who do we blame if the disk space runs out, or
the machine dies without a backup, or the box is owned because patches
aren't being applied.  Well one those things happened this year.  I
don't know whose job it was to monitor those things and report if they
weren't happening.  Was it anyone's?

So when you add all that up the one thing that doesn't need doing is
SysAdmin'ing.  We have a lot of people already doing SysAdmin'ing.
Electing someone that kicks them all off and takes over would put a lot
of noses out of joint - including mine.  What we need is someone who
monitors the box, and reports its vital statistics at each committee
meeting.  Someone who herds the cats - meaning they insist that things
get discussed on the SysAdmin list, and have the final say if the cats
are split 50/50.

Ideally, I think the position would be better filled by someone who
isn't a SysAdmin.  SysAdmin's have one fatal flaw.  They seem to be
happy to put all sorts of rules in place - but equally happy to "bend"
them if they slow down the job at hand.  Well two fatal flaws.  Most of
them tend to think every task it too trivial to bother asking for
volunteers - so they just do it themselves.