The good and bad news is that the status quo with RCOM is likely to remain unless someone in WMF, the Board, or the community is interested enough in addressing the situation to put in some effort to make RCOM a functioning organization.

At the moment I have the impression that WMF researchers are absorbing most of the work that RCOM and some dedicated RCOM admin support could do, like help with lit review and prevent outside researchers from using WMF databases in ways that compromise user privacy. My perception is that the current situation is inefficient for WMF and for outside researchers who want to do good work with WMF  or community resources, and also that RCOM lacks the resources to respond in timely ways to requests for help with outside research that could benefit Wikimedia. So, I there are reasons to changs the status quo, and I hope WMF or the Board would be interested in something like the proposal I made previously.

Phoebe, what do you think?

Pine