The situation is becoming more confusing every day. 20 days ago the Foundation posted a message (signed by the Board) stating that "we feel the most appropriate thing to do at this juncture would be to let the developers make a decision on how they would like to proceed regarding what level of ownership the C++ Alliance should have on Boost Library assets"
Note the phrase "let the developers make a decision".
The Foundation clearly expressed that there are two available options (Alliance or Foundation) and a third option was not needed ("given that there are already many Boost Developers on the Boost Foundation Board of Directors, we don’t see this as a meaningful deviation from the status quo").
20 days later members of the Foundation say there will be more options because they know at least one additional option is in development. But according to the previous logic, this additional option should be a "meaningful deviation from the status quo" or it should not be considered. But we do not know anything about it and the Foundation or its members have not disclosed any information to the developers.
Some days ago we knew that "the Boost Foundation is currently voting on a motion to utilize the library review process to decide the governance question which includes process suggestions. We should wait until that outcome".
But we have no information about this outcome and the board signed the original two option proposal. It's at least surprising that the Foundation made such a strong decision proposal and 20 days later members of the board think that "allowing them to put forward proposals is part of facilitating that agency trying". Is that a new position from the board or a personal opinion from board members?
Minutes from the Foundation are not updated since June so we don't know if there is new information that justifies any new position from the board or its members.
Additionally, Foundation board members considered that the decision should have "participation from the greater C++ community" and "the review manager should take into consideration feedback from all sources." which contradict the earlier "let the developers make a decision" from the board.
It was announced that the Boost Foundation was having a meeting (past Thursday?) about the review process for the governance, but we have no information about the decisions taken on that meeting.
This simply is not sustainable. It's not productive.
We already have a trusted review manager (Glen), which is a Foundation board member, and a very active Boost developer. We have some initial information about the operational perspective both from David (https://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2024/08/257346.php) and Vinnie (https://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2024/08/257347.php), which must be completed before the review.
The review was proposed initially for the next week (pull https://github.com/boostorg/website/pull/871/commits/55010d4fdcf87db98332da3...). So it seems that the C++ Alliance should already have a mature proposal (otherwise, C++ Alliance's proposal will be simply rejected).
We also had some clarifications ("Misunderstandings about the Boost Foundation", https://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2024/08/257463.php) that the Foundation thinks it should be considered from developers during this process.
I think it's evident that we have no new information that justifies additional delays. If anyone has an interesting proposal in a mature state, great, boost developers should know about it just now because it's time to decide and move to the next thing.
According to our established review process, the review manager should finalize the schedule with the Review Wizard and the submitter. Please let Glen, Mateusz and Vinnie agree on that.
I expect the usual 10 days period will be enough so that active boost developers (which are the ones the Foundation requested a decision from) can emit their opinions. In any case, according to the formal review process the review manager can ask the review wizard for permission to extend the review schedule if there are too few reviews or some new important information must be considered, so the review can be extended using the already established process if necessary.
IMO the Foundation or the Alliance should not try to condition this developer decision that the same Foundation proposed 20 days ago and the Alliance agreed on. That ship has sailed.
The review manager "shall check the submission to make sure it really is complete enough to warrant formal review" (https://www.boost.org/community/reviews.html).
If so, we should schedule the review on the following weeks and take a decision with the information we have, as no decision is the worst decision. If 6 months later we have newer information that requires a new review and a new change, so be it.
Thank you Ion, this is very well written, and sums up the situation nicely. I wholeheartedly agree. We need to move along with the this. John.