[robocup-small] Fwd: [rc-ssl-oc] [rc-ssl-tc] The state of SSL committees

Sat Nov 9 05:41:03 EST 2019

Kontext zu Ryans Mail: Joydeep war ein Jahr lang verschwunden und ist dann
vor nem Monat reingeplatzt und hat gemeint, dass was wir hier machen, Mist
ist und er zurücktreten wird, wenn wir nicht tun, was er will. Das 8x Field
unterstützt er nicht mehr und er wird bei den Trustees ein Veto einlegen.
Alle Stoppages sollen generell mit Force Start weitergehen (den Bullshit
haben wir ihm noch ausreden können) und das Seitenaus soll abgeschafft
werden. Letzteres ist ne Idee von Manuela und wir hatten das schon 2017
diskutiert und auf Eis gelegt. Für 2020 will er es jetzt unbedingt
durchdrücken, wahrscheinlich um Manuela zu befriedigen. Das war alles
übrigens erst nachdem wir gemeinsam im TC/OC beschlossen hatten, was wir
für 2020 umsetzen. Er ist quasi aus dem Nichts wieder aufgetaucht und
meint, nach Belieben alles übern Haufen werfen zu können.

Er hat weder Respekt vor den TC/OC Mitgliedern, die hier ehrenamtlich viel
Zeit und Geld reinstecken, und noch weniger vor den Teams. Ich war im OC,
damit ich den RoboCup so gut wie möglich vor allem für die Teilnehmer
machen kann, nicht, um nach der Nase eines Idioten zu tanzen. Deshalb bin
ich zurückgetreten.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Joydeep Biswas <joydeepb at cs.utexas.edu>
Date: Wed, Nov 6, 2019 at 3:14 PM
Subject: Re: [rc-ssl-oc] [rc-ssl-tc] The state of SSL committees
To: Ryan Strat <ryan at str.at>
Cc: rc-ssl-tc <rc-ssl-tc at lists.robocup.org>, rc-ssl-oc <
rc-ssl-oc at lists.robocup.org>, Masahide ITO <masa-ito at ist.aichi-pu.ac.jp>,
Ersin AYTAC <ersin at aytac.me>

Thanks, Ryan, for bringing this up. I agree with many of the things you
have said, and I wanted to particularly highlight one thing that you
already mentioned, but also very importantly add another important point.

Dear Committees,

As Ryan mentioned, it is *very important* to reach consensus on the
committee. The consensus option may not be the option of choice for every
committee member, but they need to to be tempered by the next point I am
going to make.

I thought this does not need to be said, but looking at what is being said
on Slack, I am convinced now it does need to be said:
We encourage a healthy discussion, and decisions evolve naturally from
these discussions. However, keep in mind that not all opinions are weighted
the same. Simply put: *respect experience, and bear in mind your place on
the ladder of experience*.
Beyond the TC, members of committees are not "voted" into place, they get
there by the decades of experience making revolutionary technical
contributions to the field of robotics and AI in general.
When there is a difference of opinion, and despite discussions if the
difference stands, we should be willing to respect experience and defer to
it.
This goes to all levels of the organization - without naming names, I
greatly respect members of the technical committee who have made
significant contributions to shared league software and hardware
infrastructure, and lead the league in maintaining this infrastructure.
Their experience commands my respect. I keep this in mind when engaging in
discussions.
Similarly, we have trustees who have been working not just on SSL, but on
many other robotics projects for *decades* now, and are *world leaders* in
the field of robotics and AI. Some of the strongest supporters of the SSL
are trustees who founded the RoboCup Federation. When I find that I do not
agree entirely with some ideas by the trustees, I engage in discussion, but
at the end of the day I defer to their experience.
Get to know your fellow committee members, the executive committee, and the
trustees - you will find their contributions and experience in the news, in
research organizations (conferences, journals, associations), on public
source code repositories, and other places on the internet.
There will come a time when everyone will have to say, "I still have
concerns, but I am going to defer to your experience and try it out". It
does not need to be said out loud, but recognizing this is key to arriving
at a consensus.

Finally, we do in fact need to reach consensus on the issue of adding
walls, and I'll start a discussion on an email thread with the trustees
most involved with the SSL, and the committees. When engaging in this
thread please bear in mind the point raised above^.

Thanks,
Joydeep

Regards,
Joydeep

On Tue, Nov 5, 2019 at 10:51 AM Ryan Strat <ryan at str.at> wrote:

> Members of the Small Size League Executive, Technical, and Organizing
> Committees,
>
> The discourse and events over the past few weeks have evolved in a way
> that is no longer constructive for the league and is counterproductive to
> achieving our goals. The group is fragmented right now, in both opinions
> and behaviors - so much so that Christian chose to resign than to deal with
> it anymore - And I don’t blame him - Over the past month, we’ve devoted far
> more energy into a debate than trying to organize a robot soccer league.
> This is untenable going forward.
>
> Before we can talk about what the future of the league is, we must first
> agree on a few tenets of how we work, which we have not been doing
> effectively.
>
> We must all be aligned when decisions are made, which means that we
> support and defend the decisions of the committees to teams, the LOC, and
> the Federation, even if they don’t align with our personal beliefs. We can
> only align on our goals and decisions through active participation, such as
> attending meetings or engaging via Slack when we have time conflicts. Not
> participating in meetings and later calling for discussion of prior
> decisions made is not respectful to members of these committees who are
> prioritizing this volunteerism in their lives.
>
> Additionally, we must change how we interact with the league when it comes
> to making large decisions. Right now, we consider an idea amongst ourselves
> and debate with with a small group of others from our respective teams -
> this is OK for small procedural changes, but for large changes, we must
> develop these concepts in the open where teams can discuss and offer
> feedback to these committees. A byproduct of soliciting feedback is that we
> must develop changes on a timeline that allocates time for team feedback. A
> “move fast and break things” approach is not appropriate when our work, in
> part, sets the research agenda for over 300 individuals. It is
> disrespectful to the league when we change course with little notice and
> conduct the rule-making in private.
>
> We must be mindful of the sacrifice of the people who volunteer their free
> time, vacation days, and money to serve on these committees. This means
> respecting each member and the perspective each of us brings to the table,
> it means not opening any dialog with an ultimatum or threat of resignation,
> if one’s idea is not eventually selected, and it means making decisions in
> an order that reduces the amount of re-work required due to changing
> requirements.
>
> Over the past couple months, I don’t feel as though we have done a good
> job adhering to the above principles, and as a result, I don’t feel as
> though my time has been respected. If I were still actively involved on a
> team, I know that I would be highly critical of the current committees. The
> very same feeling that once motivated me to join this group makes me
> endlessly frustrated as I devote hours of my time each week.
>
> This email is not a result of any of the decisions that we have made, or
> remain outstanding regarding the game, but instead is about the way the
> business of the league was conducted. I send it as an attempt to
> collectively take a moment to pause and consider the impact of the way we
> have been conducting business as of late. I am interested in making these
> committees a better place to volunteer our time and energy, but it cannot
> be productive without the support and active participation of each and
> every member of the EC, OC, and TC.
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Ryan Strat
> ryan at str.at
> +1 (678) 517-3393
> RoboCup Small Size League <https://ssl.robocup.org> | Organizing Committee
> _______________________________________________
> rc-ssl-tc mailing list
> rc-ssl-tc at lists.robocup.org
> http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rc-ssl-tc
> >> This message is from an external sender. Learn more about why this <<
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>
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