The arbitration committee, consisting of 11 members, was prodded by me to take a vote on a short-term procedure to take care of some pressing matters immmediately, an "emergency session" in Martin's terminology.
I proposed a voting procedure, and with some small modifications, it was approved by them 7-0. The other 4 may still vote, but of course the existence of a majority is sufficient to get us moving right along.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration_policy
The deal is this:
1. The Arbitration committee will continue their careful deliberations towards a more permanent policy, and when they get it done, we'll have an open community vote "yes or no" on what they've come up with.
2. In the meantime, they will handle emergency cases that I refer to them. It is understood by all that they are merely acting in my stead now, so as to begin the transfer of power in an orderly and timely fashion.
3. The voting procedure for the committee is as follows:
There being 11 members of the commmittee currently,
a. An appeal to the abritration committee will be officially heard upon referral by Jimbo and approval by any 4 committee members. That is, 4 votes to hear a case will result in the case being heard.
b. Upon those 4 votes, a final decision will be made within 1 week.
c. A quorum of the committee will consist of a majority of members, i.e. at least 6 members must vote within that week, or no decision is made, and no action is taken.
d. When a quorum has been reached, then after 1 week is up, or after enough members have voted such that the conclusion is inevitable, the majority decision will be the arbitration committee decision.
--Jimbo