I've been reading this thread with mixed feelings. I am certainly very
happy that you all think highly of my contributions, but I'm not sure
that I'm ready to spend enough time doing what I think a team leader
should do. I guess it would help if I listed what I think those things
are, and what I'm likely to do or not do, so we're all talking about
the same thing.
Just one comment now:
David Nelson said, "If you feel that the team should continue to
operate without any one single leader, with things being taken care of
by the person most diligent at that moment..."
My feeling is that things will have to continue to be "taken care of
by the person most diligent at that moment" because no one person can
(or, IMO, should) be directing all the traffic, and I'm certainly not
going to hand out assignments or track everything that's going on.
That's too much like a job, and I don't have time anyway.
Even with a "team leader" we need several people taking responsibility
for specific topic areas, a luxury we've never had (and only had
briefly, years ago, at OOo). We have a few, but not anywhere near
enough.
I'll write more later.
--Jean