Janine,
Also the proposal says:
"In general, if a project requires manual entries to be updated then it is a feature change; when in doubt, a project is a feature change. Bug fixes use a more streamlined process for implementation, whereas feature changes require discussion and approval in advance."
Later it says that the maintainer of a package can approve and apply bug fixes with no input from the core team.
So I think this is mostly inline with the current informal process. If you want to add a feature, discuss on the forum, email one of the prominent members of the community and get CVS commit privileges.
Does that address your concerns?
