--- James Rosenzweig jwrosenzweig@yahoo.com wrote:
... If we allow small panels to do this, I would suggest the right of appeal to the whole AC, however (checks and balances are good, I think). If, say, 4 of the 6 arbitrators who didn't hear the case wish to revisit it, it would be done. I think this would be a rarely taken option (I would have to be quite convinced of trouble to revisit another arbitration panel's case), but in the case of a truly unmerited result, I think it offers the community reasonable recourse. I hope something like this proposal is eventually adopted.
A majority of the the whole AC could work. My proposal would be one AC member and one second.
On the IRC issue, however, I disagree with the sentiments I've seen. I have never used email to confer with another arbitrator, and would prefer not ever to do so. I think that the best strength of arbitration thus far is its transparency, and I affirm Woodrow Wilson's principle of "open covenants, openly arrived at". I do not use IRC as a matter of course, and I doubt my current Internet connection would allow me to participate in an IRC conversation with any great skill -- the lag time would be significant, though not entirely insurmountable.
Communication is the key issue as well as putting your vote and reasoning on the wiki. If you feel more comfortable with that, then I guess we could provide for it somehow. Others, like me, want to bounce ideas off others; email and wiki are both painfully slow in that regard. Also note the IRC has proved beyond doubt to be a very good tool that the board has been using to reach decisions.
-- mav
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