Trebor for CSM 8 (and a CSM Term Restructuring Proposal)

Poetic Stanziel, as often seems to be the case lately, prompted the below. It is a reaction to Poe’s Clean Slate post.

It doesn’t take much reading of the CSM/CCP minutes – either the spring or winter versions – to see who the active, dedicated members of CSM 7 have been (a couple of others have said “I’m just not bragging about it” but part of the job, IMHO, is getting out in front of the general EVE public and your constituency to get the message out). Hans Jagerblitzen, my awardee for CSM Member of the Year. Chairman Seleene. Wormhole representative Two Step. Alekseyev Karde. Elise Randolph. Maybe UAxDEATH, who had some good points in the most recent minutes. And Trebor Daedhoow.

All of these, like them or not, agree with them or not, you cannot say that they did not put in a real effort and real input this year. They might not have reached you directly nor engaged in your favorite manner, but these carried the weight this year. They also continued the evolution of the CSM’s relationship with CCP from the adversarial days of CSM 4 & 5 and have more or less completed the arc toward business collaborator that kicked off with CSM 6. Many of these members served on CSM 6 as well, and carried over the lessons learned. While you may not like the idea, few could argue that the CCP/CSM relationship is the best it has been, and even in circumstances where there are conflicting opinions things have remained respectful.

Oh, one other thing. They’re all quitting.

Only one – Trebor – has not made a formal announcement (OK fine, UAxDEATH hasn’t either, but his backing bloc is disintegrating and thus the conventional wisdom isn’t optimistic on his chances).

It has had to be a burnout-level task for these top participants. For many it has been two years of heavy lifting. Two Step has said he wants to find time to play EVE again. Hans wants to spend more time with his new wife. These are RL>EVE items most of us can understand.

But there is value in continuity. This is why, despite my disagreements with some of his stances, I very much hope that Trebor decides to run again. Yes, you can make the argument he been on the CSM too long already. And if all the others were running, I would agree. But they aren’t. It is my contention that we need someone to help the new team transition from the old, and we need a proven heavy lifter to do it. Trebor is the elder statesman (reference to his long-term work with CSM and emotional maturity shown, not his RL age) of the group, and is well-positioned to do a good job of the administrative education and transition of his new peers.

So will I be voting for Trebor? No, I won’t. It’s too important to me to have a wormhole native (with POS issues and keeping people who don’t get wormholes from screwing them up first in mind) on the council, so if a consolidated wormhole candidate is posted, he/she will get my sole vote. If that doesn’t happen, Ripard Teg will likely get my vote (of those who have posted interest thus far). So voting for him is not my point. Continuity and smooth transition is.

Proposal

So for CSM 8 and CCP Xhagen’s consideration, I would like to make the following proposal for the future. I would like to see half of the seats of future CSMs elected in the spring, and the other half in the fall. Each CSM member would still have a 1-year term, but they would be overlapping terms to ensure continuity from one group to the next. I would encourage implementation of this during CSM 8. As always, there will be some on this council who will be deadweight – they can be “voted off the island” in the fall to become the only group that needs to serve only 6 months to start the overlapping cycle of seven-and-seven.

Until then … Trebor, one more term please.