We know that you would prefer reading about new parts updates announcements
instead of politics and bureaucratics, but unfortunately those things also have
to be done and decided on in order to ensure the smooth running of LDraw.org.
As you know we have two elected bodies, the Steering Committee (SteerCo) as the
overall governing structure and the LDraw Standards Committee (LSC) as the
technical standards board charged with discussing, ratifying, and publishing
LDraw.org file format specifications. Beside those two groups LDraw is run by
other boards like the Content Management, the Helpdesk, the System
Administration and last but certainly not least the Parts Tracker
Administration. Since they each require specific skills and knowledge and also
because they existed long before LDraw was turned into a democratic organization
the volunteers occupying those positions never underwent an election and it has
been tradition that outgoing members pass over the sceptre of their little
kingdom to someone they thought could fill their boots.
The SteerCo has been questioned about the accountability of the "chairs" at
LDraw. Are they appointed, elected, etc.? Are those positions sandboxes to play
with "until I‘m bored with it?; a job for life", or is the site the community‘s
window to the world? If these volunteers, the PT admins or the helpdesker do a
bad job, is there a way for the community to "fire" them? A highly delicate
issue as you can imagine.
