Chairship of WG2
Marc Feeley
We're writing as the Scheme Steering Committee (SSC), which oversees the Scheme standardization process (<http://scheme-reports.org/>). The SSC establishes working groups that in turn produce standards for the Scheme language. Under the SSC, Working Group 1 (WG1 <http://scheme-reports.org/2015/working-group-1.html>) finished defining R7RS Small in 2013. Working Group 2 (WG2 <http://scheme-reports.org/2015/working-group-2.html>) began working on R7RS Large in 2010, under chair John Cowan. In 2023, Daphne Preston-Kendal succeeded John as chair of WG2.
After serving since 2009 (<http://scheme-reports.org/2009/announcement.html>), the previous members of the SSC had become less responsive, so the WG2 chair requested an election to choose new members. With the approval of the SSC members, an election (<https://r7rs.org/sc/>) was held in 2026.
Marc Feeley, Arthur Gleckler, and Shiro Kawai are the current members of the SSC.
Communication between the SSC and WG2 is essential. Indeed, it was the very reason the SSC election was held. Therefore, the SSC plans to meet with the WG2 chair regularly to keep up to date not only on the progress of the WG2 efforts, but also to understand the chair's latest plans for the standardization process.
The SSC acknowledges Daphne's contributions to the R7RS Large process both as chair of WG2 and as a technical contributor, e.g. through her SRFIs (<https://srfi.schemers.org/?q=daphne+preston-kendal>). Daphne's careful tracking of the standards process has helped keep discussion on track, and has helped keep the many details from falling through the cracks. Her decision to organize roughly monthly meetings of WG2 on IRC has energized and focused the discussion.
After a meeting in November 2025, WG2 meetings stopped. At Daphne's request, WG2 members Alaric Snell-Pym and Peter McGoron served as acting chairs of WG2, and began running WG2 meetings starting in March.
To arrange the first SSC-chair meeting, the members of the SSC have tried to reach Daphne since early May. The SSC members have sent her messages through different channels, and have asked for help from other WG2 members in reaching her, but haven't received any response.
Communication between the SSC and WG2 is essential. Given the lack of response, and after careful deliberation, the SSC is relieving Daphne of her role as WG2 chair effective immediately.
The SSC will work with WG2 members to determine the next steps for the chairship.
We are grateful for Daphne's service, wish her well, and hope that she will continue to participate in shaping the future of Scheme.
Scheme Steering Committee
- Marc Feeley
- Arthur Gleckler
- Shiro Kawai
Daphne Preston-Kendal
Having taken leave from the chair due to conflict between me and Arthur Gleckler, then in his rôle as SRFI editor – conflict I had hoped the new SC could mediate in – and then decided to extend this leave to contemplate my options after he was one of the unopposed candidates who succeeded to the SC, I eventually decided that I would at least return and chair a meeting to take soundings on some of the key questions surrounding whether my platform as chair was still supported by the WG. Alas, the Scheme SC seemed to wish to pre-empt my desire to do this.
I believed I had a plan of action to mitigate the worst effect of the situation, but I must warn people from vulnerable communities that I do not believe the Scheme Working Group is a safe place to work if you are at risk of any kind of discrimination as long as the current Steering Committee is responsible for dealing with reports of discrimination.
I have seen Wolfgang and Peter’s proposal, I propose that the WG still meet on Tuesday to discuss the situation.
I remain at the disposal of the Steering Committee and the Working Group.
Daphne
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Alaric Snell-Pym
> Communication between the SSC and WG2 is essential. Given the lack of response,
> and after careful deliberation, the SSC is relieving Daphne of her role as
> WG2 chair effective immediately.
of July and called a WG2 meeting - I'm sure she has a backlog of
WG2-related email to go through and reply to, but it sounds like she's
rejoining us and presumably regular communications will be back on track
imminently?
In other words, isn't it a bit premature to relieve her of her role already?
--
Alaric Snell-Pym (M0KTN neé M7KIT)
http://www.snell-pym.org.uk/alaric/
Alaric Snell-Pym
Thank you for your announcement about the chairship of WG2, sent on the
26th of July.
We are sad to see that you have dismissed Daphne Preston-Kendall from
the Chair of WG2. We found her to be an effective Chair, and we got a
lot done together.
The suddenness of this decision, however, concerns us. Daphne is only
just returning from a period of leave (arguably, her email of the 14th
of July stating her intention to return to chairing the 28th of July
meeting would place her date of return as either the 14th (at the
earliest) or 28th (at the latest)); and she is still currently
traveling, which limits her ability to communicate. It seems
unreasonable to dismiss her for a failure to communicate under these
circumstances; the Chair is a voluntary role, R7RS standardisation has
taken years already, and acceptable response timescales should allow for
that.
We believe she should have a chance to respond to the SSC now that she
has returned from leave; and that the Scheme Steering Committee should
both reconsider their decision to dismiss her, and provide more
justification as to why they feel her communication with the SSC has
been insufficient.
Yours,
Alaric Snell-Pym
John Cowan
Vincent Manis
Zhu Zihao
Peter McGoron
This is the second time in a year that WG2 does not have an active
chair. I believe we should remedy this situation quickly. Without a
chair, it is impossible for WG2 to act on the many items it needs to
address in order to finish the R7RS-Large.
I firmly believe that WG2 should have two administrative positions that
report to the Steering Committee. This can be a chair and a vice-chair
(subordinate to the chair), or it can be two co-equal joint chairs. This
will allow one chair to take over in case of the absence, resignation,
or removal of the other chair. Each chair is kept fully knowledgeable
about the current and future work of WG2, such that they can represent
WG2 and answer questions about its work.
One of these should be Daphne Preston-Kendal. That way, WG2 can use her
experience and knowledge to progress, while the Steering Committee has
another person to talk to about the progress of WG2 in the case of
Daphne's absence. Additionally, if Daphne wishes to resign from the
chairship of WG2 due to it not comporting with her vision of Scheme
standardization (a concern she expressed in a WG2 meeting on
2026-07-28), then the WG2 can continue to operate without having to
divert all of its attention to finding another chair.
Of the other people who have an expressed a desire to be chair, I am
aware of
* Peter McGoron (myself). I currently edit the drafts of the R7RS-Large,
and I am also going to speak at Scheme Workshop 2026 about the
R7RS-Large roadmap.
* John Cowan. He mentioned being able to do it (and was the chair
before), although he feels “it would be better if a newer member did
it.” (mentioned in the WG2 meeting on 2026-07-28)
If the SSC goes with this plan, the two chairs should be chosen in
consultation with WG2.
I think that this will solve the problems that the SSC noted in their
letter, while also allowing for Daphne to continue in her leadership
position (something that many members of WG2 expressed support for).
-- Peter McGoron
Marc Feeley
A productive working relationship between the SSC and the WG2 Chair requires open, candid, and timely communication. That is the sole issue that led the SSC to that decision. The decision appeared sudden to those who were unaware of the SSC efforts behind the scenes, but attempts to discuss issues with Daphne lasted for months. No response was received to any of these direct and indirect attempts to reach out to her:
- On 3 Feb, Marc replied to a private message from Daphne to Marc and Shiro about an issue that could possibly lead to her resigning from WG2. He suggested to Daphne a way to address her concerns. Marc CC-ed only Shiro.
- On 12 May, a few days after Daphne posted the SSC election results to the WG2 mailing list, Marc wrote to Daphne privately, trying once more to find a way to address her concerns, but this time as an elected member of the SSC.
- On 21 Jun, the SSC announced on scheme-reports-wg2 that the new SSC had been meeting, and that we had decided to meet regularly with the WG2 Chair.
- On 29 Jun, Shiro wrote privately to Daphne, but on behalf of the SSC, asking whether she still planned to resign, and asking about the concerns she had reported earlier.
- On 2 Jul, Arthur wrote to WG2, asking the members for help reaching Daphne.
- On 16 Jul, having seen Daphne's announcement to WG2 that she planned to return, Marc wrote to her, asking her to meet with the SSC. The message subject was "Urgent: meeting with the Scheme Steering Committee".
Over this time Daphne was communicating with other WG2 members, but still did not reply to messages from the SSC. The SSC concluded that she was choosing not to respond to its messages. It was not appropriate for that to continue with another WG2 meeting, so the SSC announced the removal of Daphne as Chair. The SSC stands by this decision.
We are grateful to the members of the WG2, and especially to the acting WG2 Chairs and secretary who have served for the past several months. We would like to choose a new Chair soon, and ask anyone who would be willing to serve to write to us.
Thank you.
Scheme Steering Committee
- Marc Feeley
- Arthur Gleckler
- Shiro Kawai