Session Three - Questions for Candidates

(20:22:01) simesy_: I'm interested in what the other candidates think about Narayan as a candidate who will fill the gap of having infrastructure representation on the board.

I do really like the motivation of Narayan, i think he's totally right, someone form infrastructure team should be somehow in the Board of the DA, however, think that it should be decided in other place than the at large elections, as I see this as community representatives.

(20:22:55) pcambra: What would be the best way to improve the relationship between the DA and the local communities to build better and bigger events?

I would like to know the definitive answer, but as a starting point, we need tools for getting closer to the local leaders that are organizing events and meetups, talk to them and offer them tools and advice, help them with contacts and funding, offering a legal frame like the DA is doing for US events or working with local non profits. Improving the communication in the two directions is the key for this.

(20:24:02) HornCologne: Do you think the DA should work more closely with Dries to make sure that initiatives for Drupal 9 are funded and therefore on time and successful?

The DA shouldn't get involved in driving the community to a given point, but since the initiatives in D8 are a huge step forward that everyone agrees, I think that for D9, the DA could get involved both directly and indirectly, helping with funding, reaching out companies that are interested in the particular initiative and and facilitate this links and contacts.

Question 1: I'm interested in what the other candidates think about Narayan as a candidate who will fill the gap of having infrastructure representation on the board.

As a maintainer of the automated testing infrastructure, I'm somewhat conflicted on this question. I certainly agree with the perspective that the DA could benefit from having more formal 'infrastructure' representation on the board, given the importance of the infrastructure to the community it supports.

That said, I also recognize this could result in additional obligations which might make it even harder to grab 5 minutes of Narayan's time than it is right now! ;)

The main challenge that Narayan specifically will face if elected is balancing the amount of 'hands-on' work he is involved in on the infrastructure side with the 'hands-off' mandate of the Drupal Association Board of Directors; and more specifically, helping to avoid any community perception that the board is 'controlling' infrastructure activities rather than 'enabling' them.

Question 2: What would be the best way to improve the relationship between the DA and the local communities to build better and bigger events?

Ideally, anything that can be done to strengthen and support the local community businesses and user groups, enabling them to take over the building of better and bigger events themselves; thus freeing up DA resources to help even more local communities. This is not to suggest the DA get out of local event planning ... rather, I envision a long-term view where the DA provides support via consulting, resource libraries, and an array of 'event recipies'; as well as maintaining an index of potential networking contacts who are interested in being contacted regarding sponsorship or advertising opportunities (by region).

By enabling individuals and communities, making it easy for them to take on more responsibility for local event planning, we can increase the number of events without increasing the associated load on DA personnel ... while a transition to this model is something that will take a significant amount of time, effort, and possible frustration along the way; it is a also a model that can provide a significantly larger level of scalability compared to the current approach.

Question 3: Do you think the DA should work more closely with Dries to make sure that initiatives for Drupal 9 are funded and therefore on time and successful?

This question does have the potential of encroaching into some grey areas regarding the DA's 'enable and nurture, but not own or direct' role, depending on your definition of "work with Dries". I do think that the there is an opportunity for the DA to work more closely with initiative leads; from the perspective that initiative leads could potentially leverage the association's event planning and facilities experience when planning initiative sprints (freeing up more of their time to focus on specific initiative issues instead of administrative or organizational tasks), or take advantage of the DA's network of contacts in order to line up potential event sponsors.

With regards to direct DA funding of particular initiatives, I think it would only work out if the selection of what initiatives were receiving funding fell outside of the DA's scope of authority; so as to avoid the perception that the DA were 'picking favorites' and thus unduly influencing the direction of the project. This, in turn, would put the DA in the awkward position of providing financial assistance, but with no real say over where the money goes (and thus no real ability to hold the recipients accountable). With these two considerations in mind, I think that direct funding for specific initiatives is a non-starter; but the DA should otherwise strive to enable (without influencing) project initiative leads at every opportunity.