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Add RFC to discuss RustConf 2024 Steering Committee #3549

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Add RFC to discuss RustConf 2024 Steering Committee #3549

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- Feature Name: rustconf-steering-committee
- Start Date: 12-27-2023
- RFC PR:
- Rust Issue: N/A

# Summary

This RFC proposes creating a RustConf steering committee to represent the Rust Project’s perspectives and priorities throughout the RustConf 2024 planning process.

# Proposal

The Rust Foundation staff team would like to propose that a RustConf steering committee composed of ~5 Rust Project members be formed with an agreed-upon process of member appointment and scope established.
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Probably just worth just saying "~5 Rust Project members as decided by the leadership council"


A Rust Project steering committee for RustConf could be defined as:

A group of ~5 volunteers from within the Leadership Council and the Project Directors responsible for providing input and direction to the Rust Foundation staff team regarding RustConf 2024. The Rust Foundation will lean on the steering committee to advocate for areas of desired involvement besides the traditional UnConference Day and Program Committee.
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from within the Leadership Council and the Project Directors

it's probably useful if those people are involved too, but should the group be limited like this? it might limit people with prior conf organizing experience from participating and probably also increases the work load of the council members and project directors.

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I agree here. In my opinion, it would make sense to have 1-2 PDs, 1-2 council reps, and 0-2 others.

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Taking a step back, the most important point is that the program committee reflect a cross cut of the Rust Project and the wider Rust community. We have a mechanism in the Project for reflecting "Project will" that does not require polling all members of the Project: the Council. Unfortunately, we don't have such a mechanism for the wider community, and it seems like it would be an extremely large amount of work in and of itself to attempt to determine such a mechanism.

With all of that said, I think this RFC should not layout who forms the Steering Committee but rather who selects the Steering Committee membership and what the criteria for that selection are. This allows for flexibility to pick Steering Committee members who fulfill the prescribed criteria without artificially limiting the pool of potential candidates.

Straw-man Proposal

My straw-man proposal would thus be the following:

Who selects the steering committee?

The Rust Project Leadership Council is responsible for choosing the steering committee based on the criteria below.

Criteria for the Committee as a whole

  • 6-9 members total
  • No more than 2 members may share the same affiliation (using the definition of affiliation used by the Council already)
  • A simple majority must be Project members
  • TODO: ideally we'd have some criteria for demographic diversity but putting such criteria into strict quantatative terms can be difficult.

Criteria for individual members

  • Must have the time and energy to engage in the process
  • Must not be currently under moderation team sanction
  • Must have some qualification that speaks towards their knowledge of Rust and the Rust community including but not limited to Project membership, authorship of well known ecosystem crate(s), prominent Rust author/speaker/blogger/etc., organizer of another Rust conference, etc.


Once a steering committee has been formed, we can establish a regular process of communication between the Rust Foundation, the steering committee, and other groups from within the Project as identified by the steering committee.
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and other groups

So, this brings up a point: what does the steering committee do? Are they privy to potential speakers, scheduling, etc. that might not be shared more publicly? Do they help make decisions on these, or are they only "advisory"?

I think it totally makes sense to have some things (e.g. UnConference planning) be more public with input from "anyone", while more private things like potential speakers would obviously not be.



# Motivation

While the Rust Foundation has served as a Diamond-level sponsor of RustConf since our inception in 2021, we have sought approval to use our staff and financial resources towards planning and managing RustConf in a larger way in 2024. We have gotten approval from our board and received [encouragement](https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com/#narrow/stream/335408-foundation/topic/RustConf.202024.20next.20steps/near/403266679) from the Project and Leadership Council to proceed in Q4.
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and received encouragement from the Project and Leadership Council to proceed in Q4

Pretty nitpicky, but the linked Zulip thread is basically all about the location of RustConf, rather than general thoughts on Foundation involvement in RustConf planning.


Although we have always intended for the Program Committee to remain independent (with management and facilitation provided by the Foundation), Ryan Levick commented that additional Project input throughout the planning process is desired. The staff team discussed this internally and decided that a steering committee would be the right vehicle to identify and drive the type of Rust Project input requested.
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Suggested change
Although we have always intended for the Program Committee to remain independent (with management and facilitation provided by the Foundation), Ryan Levick commented that additional Project input throughout the planning process is desired. The staff team discussed this internally and decided that a steering committee would be the right vehicle to identify and drive the type of Rust Project input requested.
Although we have always intended for the Program Committee to remain independent (with management and facilitation provided by the Foundation), Ryan Levick commented that additional Project input throughout the planning process is also desired. The staff team discussed this internally and decided that a steering committee would be the right vehicle to identify and drive the type of Rust Project input requested.

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Although we have always intended for the Program Committee to remain independent (with management and facilitation provided by the Foundation)

I'll elaborate a bit more on this later, but I think it would be useful to specify what the Program Committee is (who does it consist of - at least, foundation staff, people hired specifically for the role, etc - and what does it do). And how "independent" is it(how does to committee interact with the Foundation staff and board)?

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additional Project input

Again, I think elaborating a bit on what this input would look like, and how it is used would be helpful.

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The staff team discussed this internally and decided that a steering committee would be the right vehicle to identify and drive the type of Rust Project input requested.

Maybe replace this with a short list of motivating reasons why a committee is better than e.g. a Zulip thread or survey?

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Nit: these sections read more like a historical recounting of how the decision was made to make this RFC rather than an attempt to establish the Steering Committee. While some of this is good historical context, I think it would be better to try to write more from the perspective of "what/who/why is the steering committee" vs "this is the history up to this point".


When the Rust Foundation staff team raised this idea to our Project Directors during our biweekly meeting, we were asked to outline our idea in an RFC.
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This probably doesn't need to be included



# Practicalities

Once this proposal is accepted, the Rust Foundation team can work with the Leadership Council and the Project Directors to carry out a volunteering process to form the steering committee.
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Mentioned briefly above, but also curious from the Foundation side if there is anything special about the committee? Like, is it just a set of people with regular communications, or does it have to be something "more"?


Once the steering committee is staffed, we can agree upon a channel and cadence of communication. From there, we will be asking the steering committee to share a clear set of expectations about their preferred involvement in RustConf planning (if there are requests outside of Program Committee and UnConf involvement). We can discuss these desires and expectations in Zulip.
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a clear set of expectations about their preferred involvement in RustConf planning

it might be good to give a rough list of what areas of planning exist when organizing such a conference. that would make it a lot easier for the volunteer team to figure out in which areas they would like to be involved. the list would not need to be part of the RFC, but it would probably be good to have during the volunteering process, so that people know what they would sign up for. :)

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I do think it's useful to outline a bit about the different parts of the planning process and the (potential) role of the committee in those.


Next, we can establish a practice of the Rust Foundation sharing timeline updates and next steps with the steering committee and field any questions or comments that might arise from these memos. The Foundation and steering committee can collaboratively identify practices around public communication of progress and advocacy efforts.
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Next, we can establish a practice of the Rust Foundation sharing timeline updates and next steps with the steering committee and field any questions or comments that might arise from these memos.

So, this sentence gives off the vibe to me that the committee is essentially a mini mailing list that gets periodic updates on conference planning, rather than collaborative involvement.

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The Foundation and steering committee can collaboratively identify practices around public communication of progress and advocacy efforts.

Public communication is good, but it would be good to elaborate a bit on what kind of communication could be helpful?


If the Leadership Council is in favor of this idea, we would like for the steering committee to be in place and active by the end of February 2024.
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Suggested change
If the Leadership Council is in favor of this idea, we would like for the steering committee to be in place and active by the end of February 2024.
The steering committee should be in place and active by the end of February 2024.


# Alternatives

## Foundation-Leadership Council Collaboration

If desired, the Rust Foundation could work directly with the Leadership Council instead of forming a steering committee. However, we will still require an agreed-upon set of priorities and a more detailed process of communication about RustConf than currently exists between the Rust Foundation and the Leadership Council.
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Elaborating a bit on the upsides and downsides here would be good.


## Definition of Done

A decision from the Leadership Council on forming a RustConf 2024 steering committee with an agreed-upon structure, scope, and member appointment process.

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Not sure if this fits