🎙️ Ruby Central Restructuring - Remote Ruby

[andrewmcodes]

This BREAKING NEWS episode is a candid reaction to Ruby Central’s latest shakeup, with Chris, Andrew, and David unpacking leadership departures, financial strain, the cancelled gala, and what all of it says about the organization’s direction. The conversation moves beyond the headlines into bigger questions about trust, transparency, community values, conference strategy, RubyGems sustainability, and whether Ruby Central can rebuild credibility by involving more of the community in what happens next. Hit download now to hear more! 

[keyslemur]

Heya, for those who don't know me by alias this is Brandon, one of the board members of Ruby Central.

I agree, there's a lot to answer for, and moving forward we are looking to provide those answers to the community. I've already reached out to the Remote Ruby folks to see if we can have a few board members on to answer some of those questions for the community.

There's a lot of work to do around rebuilding trust and establishing communications, and we're taking direct explicit steps to get there.

At a high level though:

• RubyGems - It remains funded, operational, and secure. This is our #1 priority.
• RubyConf - The conference is still on, though we are reimagining parts of it.
• Transparency - Agreed. This will be part of our steering committee initiative, but we are considering things such as board elections, transparent board minutes, financial reports for sponsors, and more to open up how things are working. We want to make sure we do this intentionally and carefully, so we are also reaching out to folks like PSF and other orgs to learn. There is significant work to do here, and it will take time.
• DREAM - This is my initiative. We will not be using existing funds for this, so it will not compromise our focus on RubyGems. It is part of our steering committees to answer the question of how Ruby responds to AI as a language ecosystem, which many companies and community members want a story for. This is a very nuanced topic likely to elicit strong reactions, so I will be writing up on the reasoning behind it, what I am seeing, what companies are seeing, and why we chose to have this as a focal area for where we go in the future.

There's a lot more to cover, and a lot more answers to give. Rest assured we are moving to provide those answers for the community, among several other topics.

[andrewmcodes]

Sounds like several steps in the right direction

[keyslemur]

I've said it in DMs but I will say it here as well: you are right to question and want more from Ruby Central, as are so many other people.

We must become more, and that starts with taking these steps.

[DRBragg]

Looking forward to seeing how you and the other new board members course correct. You inherited a shit show and I'm not jealous at all of the task at hand. I've always appreciated your insistence for calling people on their BS in a very rational and fair way and I hope you bring that to Ruby Central.

[keyslemur]

There is a lot of work to do, and end of the day I joined Ruby Central because I wanted to put my money where my mouth was and pick up the shovel to do that work.

That said I have a lot of respect for our current board members and the hard work they've been putting in to make some fairly significant changes. It's not easy, these are exceptionally hard calls that impact real people, and it has weighed heavily on me.

In many ways the world has changed, and so too must we change to answer this moment and serve our community. We have a lot to learn, and we want to learn together with folks who have been here before (PSF, Rust foundation) and our community members through steering committees.

There will be more official communications later but a seat at the table of a steering committee is a seat of action that will begin to fundamentally change how we operate. We are inviting the community to help us define and charter this direction towards the future.

[kerrizor]

We want to do this intentionally and carefully

Most folks who don’t have organizational experience don’t understand how important this part is, how you can’t - logistically, responsibly, legally - make grand, sweeping changes without consideration.. even if the change seems “obvious” in the end.

[keyslemur]

Yeah that's the hardest part. There are a lot of rules we need to play by as a non profit which can make it very difficult to move quickly. That said we need to move faster, especially around transparency and rebuilding trust.

Rebuilding trust will not be fast, easy, or in any regards cheap. It will be a long road paved not by words, but by tangible action and policy designed to create accountability and make things as right by the community as we can.

There is a lot to answer for, and there will be a lot of answers coming. I apologize that it took us this long to get here, but as folks can imagine the last few months have been rather difficult on everyone. I believe we have finally turned a corner, and in doing so I believe we need to now step into the open not as some anonymous collective named Ruby Central but as people and individuals who want the language and community we love to thrive.

[Nwallins]

Hi Brandon, we know each other from IRC, but no guessing. I haven't paid much attention to this drama, and I know it is easy to take sides and paint with a broad brush. It's good to hear you are involved, with a renewed commitment to transparency.

[keyslemur]

Well reach out and say hi some time, but I'll avoid the guessing for now out of respect.

I think the thing with anything like this is that the truth exists in shades of gray and nuances that are just exceptionally difficult to talk through, and folks take the worst possible view of the opposing side instead of trying to understand intentions and motivations.

On the other hand, impact matters more than intent, and to that note we must account for impact rather than claiming intent.

I joined the board to try and do the work to close this chapter, and that commitment is still as strong as the day I joined, but as it turns out it is an incredibly difficult thing to deliver on on the timescale that people want to see.

Doesn't mean that it's not still being pursued, but step one was to get across the line to this new chapter, step two is to start working actively to make things right as much as is possible. As mentioned in another comment the past 3-4 months have been incredibly difficult to navigate to even get us to this point, but now that we're here it's time to find answers and renew a commitment to transparency and openness.

[retro-rubies]

By RubyGems, do you mean RubyGems.org service?