[Mpi-forum] MPI Next leadership

Bronis R. de Supinski bronis at llnl.gov
Wed Sep 26 23:46:47 CDT 2012


Jeff:

My intent is not to "neuter" the chair. Instead, I am only
stating that the chair should clearly state when (s)he is
voicing personal/institutional opinions as opposed to acting
as leader (sometimes the roles conflict and also sometimes
the leader does have to enforce the clear general opinion).

As to logistics, yes, I see your point but I still think
that combining them would generally simplify things. I
also think it is fine for the chair to delegate aspects
that the convener handles but they should still be
responsible for them (we all blame the chair if they do
not go right so they should also have the authority since
they de facto have responsibility).

Bronis


On Wed, 26 Sep 2012, Jeff Squyres wrote:

> This is exactly why we should have the discussion: "chair" and "convener" have not necessarily been the same person over the last few years.  Rich has been the convener since 2.1, but has only been the chair for 3.0.
>
> My $0.02 is that I don't think they need to be the same person.  The chair is the [neutral] technical leader (and therefore sets the meeting agendas), but the convener is someone with an organization who can make meeting room reservations, accept registration and payments from meeting attendees, etc.  That being said, as long as the chair remains neutral in setting the agenda and guiding the process, the chair should be allowed to have their own technical opinions, just like anyone else.  Otherwise, you're just neutering the chair, and their incentive to participate is quite limited.
>
> In short: I see the convener as a largely logistical role, but the chair as more of a technical role.
>
>
>
> On Sep 27, 2012, at 6:33 AM, Bronis R. de Supinski wrote:
>
>>
>> Personally, I think "chair" should also be "meeting convener".
>> The chair should be largely administrative/neutral/meeting
>> organizer and runner. Convening meetings is a natural part
>> of that activity. The chair should not be promoting a
>> particular technical agenda (at least not as "chair").
>>
>>
>> On Wed, 26 Sep 2012, Jeff Squyres wrote:
>>
>>> As part of this discussion, it might be worthwhile to also bring up the auxiliary roles -- there's a bunch of things that happen behind the scenes to make the Forum function:
>>>
>>> - secretary
>>> - meeting convener
>>> - web maintainers (main site, meetings site, lists site)
>>> - svn / trac maintainer
>>>
>>> I mention this because, although I'm happy to continue in the role as secretary, a) if there's someone else burning to do that role, it would be fair to discuss it, and b) sometimes there has been confusion about exactly what the secretary is supposed to do.  Maybe it would be useful to delineate the responsibilities of the auxiliary roles.  Just like we discovered that we all didn't have the same conceptions of how the secretary applies the voting rules, perhaps there are other unwritten inconsistencies, too.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sep 26, 2012, at 10:27 PM, Brightwell, Ronald wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Greetings:
>>>>
>>>> I wasn't able to attend the Forum meeting last week, so I don't know if this came up or not, but given that it's election season in the US and MPI 3.0 has been officially accepted, it seems like a good time to discuss leadership of the Forum going forward. I know several people who have been involved from a leadership standpoint are in different situations now then they were when the 3.0 process started, and their priorities and commitments are different. I think it might be good to have an open discussion about making changes to some of the leadership roles in an effort to make sure that we start this next phase in the best way possible.
>>>>
>>>> -Ron
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Jeff Squyres
>>> jsquyres at cisco.com
>>> For corporate legal information go to: http://www.cisco.com/web/about/doing_business/legal/cri/
>>>
>>>
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>
>
> -- 
> Jeff Squyres
> jsquyres at cisco.com
> For corporate legal information go to: http://www.cisco.com/web/about/doing_business/legal/cri/
>
>



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