On Wed, 2002-11-13 at 11:16, Sam Ruby wrote:

The PMC or the PMC chair ? It's a huge difference ( especially if most committers are in the PMC )

The fact that you as PMC chair have decided to not use this power is great. But the question if the chair has "benevolent dictator" power remains, and Ken's message ( and yours ) suggest that it's just a matter of "benevolence" - with no explicit restraints on the rules.

My understanding so far was that the chair is bound by the project charter and rules. The project charter defines the release and voting rules.

In bylaws 6.3: "Each Project Management Committee shall be responsible for the active management of one or more projects"

and "The chairman of each Project Management Committee shall be primarily responsible for project(s) managed by such committee, and he or she shall establish rules and procedures for the day to day management of project(s) for which the committee is responsible"

Does it means the rules are subject to change at any time ? ( i.e. can the chair add rules whenever he sees a need ) I also think many people have the wrong impression that the PMC can establish the rules - where it's the chair ( of course the benevolent chair will ask the PMC for its opinion - but without being required to do so )

Given that projects are creating their own PMCs, I think it is quite important for people to know this.

I think it would be very useful for the community to know and understand all the rules that are involved, which doesn't seem the case.

I agree.

In my perception the fact that many of the people involved in apache are not aware of all the rules and their consequences is one of the biggest problems.

If the interpretation that the chair has the power to change the rules at any time or is above the rules explicitly defined in the project charter is right, I think it can be a problem. ( not for jakarta - but for other projects who may not be lucky to have you or someone like you as chair )

Costin