JoomlaLeaks

I spent several weeks in the Caribbean towards the end of February and the beginning of March.  Temperatures were in the 80's and I missed several snowfalls at home. While at in Philipsburg, St. Maarten we had a great opportunity to crew a 12 meter racing yacht and re-create the America's Cup regatta. Dennis Conner's America's Cup winning Stars & Stripes, Canada II and True North compete in this regatta.  "Crew members" (about 11 of us and three regular crew) grind a winch… trim a sail… or punch a stop watch for the approximately three hours that the race takes. If you have never been sailing in a 12 meter racing yacht, this is definitely one of the BEST experiences ever. It is also a great life experience about cooperation and communication in business and life in general. You can't decide suddenly not to participate nor can you fail to communicate to the winch grinders or boom winch operator. By the way, I was in True North and came in second - Stars & Stripes first - Canada II third.

It's downright comical! On September 29th, Alice Grevet posted in the Open Source Matters, Inc. - Public Mailing list that the minutes from the September 18th OSM Board meeting were ready for approval. Only 11 days after the meeting. Almost a record considering it took almost two months to post the last two sets of minutes. But, wouldn't you know - the OSM Board, then took took 11 days to approve the minutes. Now I understand why they want one to two months to post minutes.

Of course, it takes even longer to get through a process to change the License, Trademark, and Copyright issues that have been under discussion for a lifetime. The board seems to be frustrated itself so I wonder who or what the holdup is:

 b. License, Trademark, and Copyright Committee 09/18/2012: It is time to think about a Plan B, perhaps including some of the new people who have shown an interest, in case this process gets stalled much longer.

hyp·o·crite noun \ˈhi-pə-ˌkrit\

1: a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion
2 : a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings

 Merriam-Webster

You know OSM, you can't keep saying one thing and either doing something else or doing nothing for long. People will learn not to believe what you say!

 Looks like that is where Joomla! Leadership is pedaling just as fast as it can. If you haven't had the chance, please read the proposed Joomla Foundation document that has not been offered to the Joomla! Community for comment - only to the Joomla! Leadership.

Still waiting for:

1Publication of the 2012 budget now technically overdue by 130 days or four months and nine days from January 1st, 2012. From the promise time frame it is overdue by 44 days or one month and thirteen days from a "week or so" as stated in the March 20th, 2012 board minutes.

2Publication of an end-of-year financial report now technically overdue by 130 days or four months and nine days from January 1st, 2012.

3Publication of any financial report now overdue by 192 days or six months and ten days since the last publication of October 31, 2011.

Good NewsYou may have not noticed but OSM published their March 20, 2012 board minutes only three days after their April 20th board meeting. That's like a record and is well appreciated by those of us who strongly believe in the public oversight clause of OSM's bylaws!

Also notable is that Altansukh Tumenjargal has attended the first three months of board meetings of 2012. Either the board made special accommodation as to the time of the board meetings or Sukh has made a special effort. Either way, it's good to see.

Bad News Discussions from Javier Gomez's group on leadership changes were supposed to be available in the public group Joomla Project Structure Working Group. You can find part of the information there but the rest that is mentioned such as the responsibility descriptions of the directors is not public even though it was asked for and promised to the public several years ago. You will also note that there is no attempt, as we move closer and closer to the summit in Germany, to make any pretense of evaluating whether such changes are even necessary or appropriate. Instead,  the discussions are entirely focused on the final structure assuming that it will be approved.

Here we go again. Empty promises over and over seem to be the rule in the Joomla! leadership house.

The latest, of course, is the one called the proposed Joomla! leadership changes. Why am I being sarcastic? Well, let's examine what is now going on. First, Paul Orwig while voting for additional discussion at the upcoming J and Beyond in Germany in May, 2012 stated:

I suggest that we take the next three months leading up to JAB to form one or more working groups that will study various aspects of the proposed leadership structure changes in more depth. That way we can have a more detailed set of recommendations to review and discuss at JAB, with the goal of making a decision there about the best approach to implement.

Some leaders perceive they can, by force of will, ensure the intended consequences of their actions – even in the face of mounting evidence that the outside forces (e.g. competitors, regulators, economic conditions, customers, or community) are not reacting to their expectations “correctly.” Greek tragedians referred to this failing as “hubris” – the overwhelming pride that blinds the tragic hero to the consequences of his/her actions. The audience can clearly foresee the inevitable fall from a great height, but the tragic hero is blind to all but his own intentions.

 If you have not yet had the opportunity, I suggest you read Paul Orwig's latest communication in the Joomla Leadership Google Group.

I am still trying to figure out how the board of OSM went from wanting to install numerous "liaison's" or committee chairs between the board members and the various committees or teams that the newly installed president of OSM seemed to want back in April of 2010 to the current proposal of incorporating all Joomla! leadership groups within the overarching reach of the OSM structure. Back in April of 2010, Elin Waring attempted to explain that the Core team didn't want to be on committees. They wanted OSM to deal with the business aspects.

I find it a little more then curious that the President of OSM has not taken part in any of the discussions surrounding the proposed restructuring of the Joomla! Leadership with the Board of OSM being over all Joomla! teams. In fact, as I pointed out in the blog Where's Waldo (err.. Ryan Ozimek)?, Mr. Ozimek has only really been visible in his world-wide travels. The President of the Board has certain responsibilities including:

• Execute the will of the board
• Provide leadership to the board
• Develop a vision for the board
• Be the communicator or spokesperson for the board
• Manage the effective use of meetings (regular and committee meetings)