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

Sat Nov 9 05:44:43 EST 2019

Hey everyone,

*Please ignore this mail!*
I didn't mean to send it to the SSL list. Sorry for the spam :(

Best,
Christian

On Sat, Nov 9, 2019 at 11:41 AM Christian Lobmeier <pardinensis at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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 <<
>> >> matters at https://links.utexas.edu/rtyclf.                        <<
>>
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