People,
I am going to resign from the new Committee as well, and I believe that Prim will be following suit when she is online.
The three of us have discussed this with one another - I don't want to deceive you that we arrived at this decision independently - and I have been the one pushing for the past two days for us to remove ourselves from this process for a couple reasons.
First of all, for personal reasons, if we had begun immediately I would have stayed and at least worked on the hygienic cleanups, as I think we'll all be better off for those. But I too would like a holiday season free of the troubles of B77 and it seems to only way to achieve that is to not have future responsibilities of a controversial nature hanging over my head.
But more importantly, there is a perception that only a handful of us support the Charter and the rest of the membership would like to get rid of it. In fact, it has been said many times that numerous members have left the board because of the Charter and because of me specifically. I have no way of knowing whether this is true or not, but I am sure that the truth of it will never be ascertained if I remain on every charter committee. Same goes for Voronwe and Prim and anyone else who was part of the original convention.
If the members like the way the charter is, or if they want only to modify parts of it but not jettison it completely, then they need to speak up for themselves. It is not my intention, and has never been my intention, to speak in place of others who wanted something different from me. I think that convention members know that, because they got to work under my leadership, but those who were not on the convention do not know that and it is time they learned. The only way to 'teach' that to them is to remove myself from all committees and positions of responsibility. I can't serve two sequential terms as Ranger so that duty is taken care of come January 31; and I will not serve on any committees for the coming year.
Third, I believe that the presence of myself, Voronwe and Prim on a committee makes certain people feel obligated to stand in opposition to us, whatever we say. This impedes their ability to think freely and it impedes the ability of the committee to function properly - that is, to consider all options and choose among them based on merit.
Fourth, the other committee members have not taken leadership roles until now. Except for Alatar and TED, none have served on committee or served as Rangers or signed up for jury pool, etc. Yet we've heard some pretty virulent criticism from that quarter as to how others were performing in these capacities. I mean this in the most sincere way imaginable, because it happens that I do believe in democracy - I think it is time for the rest of the board to have a chance to see what leadership looks like under the alternate model. Let them see how things operate under a committee composed of TED, Alatar, Fixer, Lidless, TheMary, and Elian and whomever else joins at this point. It will be good for the committee to have the unbridled discretion they've asked for and it will be good for the board to see what that looks like.
Since I'm a Ranger until Jan. 31 I will serve the committee by editing threads as necessary, sending out the global email and calculating quorum, etc. as needed. And of course I will vote on anything the committee proposes, and might even express an opinion here in the Business room. But I will stay out of their hair as they draft the new Charter.
The only thing the committee will be obligated to do, I'm afraid, is remove the ownership provision from the Charter. Voronwe will not be facilitating this in any event, and it is my humble opinion that carrying a provision like that when the event has moved so far into the future is unwise.
Jn
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"All things considered, I'd rather be in Philadelphia."
Epigraph on the tombstone of W.C. Fields.