[python-committers] [PEP 8013] The External Council Governance Model

[Steve Dower]

On 28Sep2018 0649, Nick Coghlan wrote:
> If we did go down the "independent
> advisory council" route, I'd actually prefer to see it used to
> strengthen the BDFL-Delegate system rather than weaken it: the role of
> the advisory council would only be to step in when there was a dispute
> amongst the core developers as to whether or not there was a suitable
> volunteer available to serve as BDFL-Delegate, or if there was a
> proposal where nobody was volunteering to be the final decision maker,
> but the council thought the prospective gains on offer were
> sufficiently large to make it worthwhile to attempt to change that
> state of affairs.

Perhaps I need to clarify the text referring to this system (or provide
an example?), but the way I see it working is that the council may
choose to nominate a core developer to drive and approve the design by
saying that they will veto the proposal unless that specific person
approves of it.

What I *don't* want to bake into the process is that the council has no
further veto power after nominating a delegate, or that the council is
*required* to nominate a delegate. The easiest way to do this is to (a)
not allow complete delegation of final approval, and (b) not define the
criteria required to obtain approval.

Basically, the written process should not constrain those who we select
to manage final decisions. The constraint is that the core developers
have to approve of the people selected, which (in my mind, at least)
implies some period of campaigning or investigation prior to the election.

> The other aspects would pretty much remain the same as you suggest -
> the advisory council would mainly be there to help BDFL-Delegates out
> when it came time to end discussion of a proposal and make their
> decision (whether for or against) stick.

This paragraph makes me think you're on the same page and I just need to
add an example for the above case. The members of the council can do or
say whatever they like when a proposal is being discussed (but they
don't have to), provided they also make an explicit approval/rejection
when requested by a core developer.

Cheers,
Steve