I know you don't want to take over this project but any chance of getting the person able to accept code changes do so in a timely manner? If you change the code but the source is not updated right away we will be in the same situation we are now.
Another problem is getting someone to inform everyone (exchanges/miners) of an upcoming fork and moving to it before it occurs. Ultimately, we simply don't have a leader for this coin. Perhaps we should not do anything until we do?