Le vendredi, 19 mars 2021, 10.38:08 h CET Raphael Hertzog a écrit : > There are quite a few software projects that have hired staff to help > smooth the internal working of organizations, I know at least of Django > with its fellowship program: > https://www.djangoproject.com/fundraising/#fellowship-program > > The current resources of Debian means that we can confidently hire at least > one or two fellows that would work under the direction of the DPL > and not be in troubles for many years.
Thank you for bringing this topic on the table, I consider it very important
for the long-term sustainability of the project!
> To the other DD, would you second a GR to allow the DPL to hire one
> or two persons to help him lead the project? What kind of safeguards would
> be needed?
Yes, definitely. (tl; dr: in fact it turns out I rather disagree)
But I liked last year's focus put by Brian about this idea; I don't see the
whole solution being only "having staff on a payroll", but it's rather a
larger structural question.
So, to take a (hopefully small) step back, for me the question we shall ask
ourselves is: what organizational structure, with what roles accountable for
which areas of responsibility, with what material support or financial
compensation is best suited to serve our larger organization's purpose and
long- (and mid-)term goals?
Our constitution has established a "large body of peers, with one elected
leader delegating power, no financial compensations" structure, which I think
served us moderately well until some years ago, but not sufficiently well
anymore.
From other non-IT/non-Debian experience, I have also witnessed (in my very
privileged socio-cultural environment, so take that with a grain of salt) that
the way people spend their volunteer time has also evolved quite a lot in the
past 10 years: people don't engage in their communities the same way they did
a decade ago. They don't necessarily spend less time overall, but it's much
more cluttered, spread among more organizations, causes and concerns. And
volunteers have different expectations in terms of recognition, of
compensation, and of commitment. Applying this to our organization, I feel
that volunteering to be the DPL for a year doesn't have the same meaning as it
had 10 years ago; the responsibilites, exposure and expected commitment have
changed, but the "job description" hasn't.
Now, notwithstanding the discussion about making Debian a legal entity world-
wide, I think it's about time for Debian to adopt a "more than just one
perfect elected individual" leadership structure (I'm well aware it took all
sorts of names over the years, ranging from DPL Board to DPL advisory
committee, etc etc). It's really not uncommon for organizations to have
Boards, with only elected roles, and that's the direction I'd lean into; we
need a larger body of elected roles to take on the set of tasks currently
given to the DPL (probably a larger one too). So I think we need to start
talking concretely about the number of roles, their purpose and
accountabilities, their names, the length of their mandates, etc etc. THEN,
with such a body in place, with elected roles filled by volunteers, I think we
can start talking about hiring.
(OK, that turned out to be a larger step back than I expected, sorry).
If, and when, Debian (likely through the DPL, or directly) opens a paid
position for a specific role, we need to be abundantly clear about the job
description, the limits of the role, the reporting expectations, etc etc. I
would definitely not "allow the DPL to hire to help them lead the project",
but I would rather "allow the DPL to hire somebody to fill a specific
(eventually wide) non-leadership support role". In other terms; I don't think
we want to have paid staff with actual decision powers. I do think we might
agree to having paid staff *without* actual decision power, but providing
administrative support for example.
Regarding Ganneff and gregoa's concerns (which I share to some extent); I know
of many non-IT organizations which have these types of structures, and it
works usually quite well, because the formal decision powers reside in elected
volunteers, while loads of administrative, directed, support work is done by
paid staff. Of course, paid staff ends up spending quite some more time on
some topics, and gain deeper knowledge, reputation, and can end up
overshadowing the elected volunteers who can't manage / afford to dive as deep
in some subjects; so that's exactly why we ought to define the paid staff's
mandate precisely, with these caveats in mind.
Anyway; in short; I think a project the size of Debian needs reliable and
accessible administrative support paid staff, to free the leadership (and lots
of non-leadership) roles from this burden, and to help all volunteers focus on
what they do best instead of being drowned in administrativia and accounting
loopholes.
--
OdyX
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