On 4.08.14 17:19 , Russ Housley wrote:
In an aircraft, there is a pilot and a co-pilot.
... and while they take turns flying the aircraft and while the pilot monitoring is expected to clearly call out any mistakes by the pilot flying, the captain has the ultimate responsibility for the safe operation of the aeroplane. That is why the technical term is "pilot in command" and why the pilot in command is empowered appropriately by laws, regulations and traditions. Maybe this precedent offers us a way forward. We can have a chair and two co-chairs. This is exactly where I perceived the discussion to be going before the latest intervention by ALAC. I like this compromise because - it provides stability by not depending on a single person, - it has potential to bring complementary skills to bear, - it provides the external optics ALAC considers important, and - it allows sharing of the workload. At the same time it clearly assigns the responsibility for organising and conducting (sic!) our work to a single person who accepts that responsibility and whom we empower by agreeing to give them room to do their work and not loose ourselves in battles about formalities or in frequent criticism of the chair. I strongly believe in giving people responsibility and in empowering them appropriately at the same time. NB: I also believe in taking away their responsibilities if they do not do the job.
From experience I am very wary of giving any responsibility to a group of equals, especially if they have no history of working well together. I have especially bad experiences with equal co-chairs of any large group. There must be a reason why this is an extremely rare arrangement.
Way forward: Best would be if we could agree on 1+2 in the next few days by e-mail or poll. This would require ALAC removing their show-stopper. Maybe hearing many ICG members agree with this compromise would make it easier for ALAC? Then we call for candidates. The we take a poll. The we appoint two people. Next best would be to discuss this at our September f2f meeting. In that case we will need to agree who prepares and chairs this meeting until the issue is resolved. We should not attempt to resolve this in a telephone conference. This is unlikely to work. We better use that time to progress other work like the RFP. Constructively yours Daniel