ODF TC chair, and a few other roles

[Michael Brauer <Michael.Brauer@Sun.COM>]

Dear TC members,

The OpenDocument TC was founded about five years ago. A lot of things 
happened in the TC since then. Those things we remember are the 
approvals of ODF versions as standards, the formations of sub 
committees, or the approvals of major proposals.

But there are things that happened that most of us probably do not 
remember, or may even not have noticed. One of these things are the 
revisions of the OASIS Technical Committee process, that have been 
approved by the OASIS board of directors, and that aim to improve the 
environment in which technical committees operate, and in which 
specifications are developed and advanced to OASIS standards.

One of the improvements that has been introduced this way after the 
OpenDocument TC was founded is the possibility for a TC to have two 
co-chairs rather than having a singe chair. We are successfully using 
this option for the Accessibility Subcommittee, and the ODF Adoption TC 
is using this option as well. When thinking about the last five years a 
couple of weeks ago, I wondered myself whether this would be an option 
for our TC, too. And to make it short: I would like to propose to the TC 
that we use the option of having two co-chairs, and I would like to 
propose to elect Robert Weir as the 2nd co-chair of the TC next to me. 
Robert is a valuable and very active TC member for a long time, and he 
participates in all SCs. He further is an active member of the ODF 
Adoption TC (where he for instance organized the ODF Camp), and he is 
very actively representing and promoting the work of our TC at 
conferences and other opportunities. So, in short, I think our TC would 
benefit a lot from having him in the position of a co-chair, and I would 
be very glad if he gets your support for this position. I've talked to 
him beforehand, and he did let me know that he would accept the co-chair 
role if he gets elected.

In addition to this, I would like to propose to the TC that we appoint 
Patrick Durusau as our "official" TC editor. We all know about the 
immense review and excellent editing work that Patrick did for the TC, 
and about the benefit of it for the ODF specification. So, to appoint 
him officially as TC editor only reflects the role he has for the TC 
unofficially already for a long time now.

While an election of Robert Weir as TC co-chair and of Patrick as TC 
editor for sure would be very good news for our TC, there is 
unfortunately also a bad news for the TC: Lars Oppermann has indicated 
to me that he will not be able to continue his role as TC secretary due 
a change of his affiliation, and furthermore will leave our TC. I'm very 
sad about this, but would like to take this opportunity to thank him for 
the work he did for our TC in the past. I wish him all the best for the 
future.

While my wish to appoint Rob Weir as co-chair of this TC and Lars' 
affiliation change are in no way related to each other and only by 
coincidence happen at the same time, the need for a TC secretary seems 
to be less urgent than for a TC that only has a single chair. I 
therefore suggest that the TC secretary duties are taken over by the 
co-chairs of the TC, at least for moment.

Provided that you agree to what I have proposed, how would we proceed? 
First of all, we would conduct a vote to decide whether to elect a 
co-chair in the next TC coordination call. This vote requires a simple 
majority. If it is successful, I would nominate Robert Weir officially 
for the position of a co-chair, and would set up an electronic ballot to 
elect him as co-chair (Alternatively, we may have the ballot in the TC 
call itself.) This ballot requires a full majority of the TC.

As for the TC editor role for Patrick: It is the right of the TC chairs 
to just delegate that role, but I would like to ask for your support for 
this by having a ballot in the next coordination call.

BTW: The scope of the metadata SC is currently only ODF 1.2, but I would 
like to suggest that we continue this sub committee beyond ODF 1.2, and 
ask Patrick to continue to chair it.

Best regards

Michael
-- 
Michael Brauer, Technical Architect Software Engineering
StarOffice/OpenOffice.org
Sun Microsystems GmbH             Nagelsweg 55
D-20097 Hamburg, Germany          michael.brauer@sun.com
http://sun.com/staroffice         +49 40 23646 500
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS

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