[r-t] Someone has to decide

[John Harrison]

> Someone has to decide. A recent poll said it shouldn't be the Methods
> Committee. Who is it to be?

Someone does have to decide, and the only practical way to make decisions
on behalf of a community is to vest the the decisions in a central body.

But the central body needs to recognise that it is the custodian of the
decisions/rules/standards/norms, on behalf of the community.  It is
incumbent on it to ensure that the decisions/rules/standards/norms continue
to meet the needs of the community.

This involves two types of process.  One is to do with the 'engineering' of
the decisions/rules/standards/norms (typically delegated to a suitably
qualified, suitably motivated team) and the other is to ensure that they
continue to meet the needs of the community.

In systems engineering speak, the latter would be called eliciting user
requirements.  When user requirements evolve the system needs changing.  If
the change is minor the change may be a small patch.  If the change is
major, or some underlying premise of the original system is brought into
question, then more radical changes to the system may be needed.

In this case the body with custody of the decisions/rules/standards/norms
is the Central Council and its delegated specialist team is the Methods
Committee.  The question is how will they respond to the apparent mismatch
between some of the premises underlying the current heavily patched
Decisions and the ringing community's needs and expectations.  A good
response will gain more respect for both.

-- 
John Harrison
Website http://jaharrison.me.uk