I think any procedure you come up with will be satisfactory. I suggest
referal ought to come from the mediator who is familiar with the case. This
would count as referral by the committee, absent an overide. (You would need
to make that your policy)
My meta suggestion is to adapt some policy (with a minimum of fuss) and move
on.
We are very near, hopefully, to ratifying an arbitration policy which would
permit referrals by the meditation committee as a whole, individual
mediators or indeed anyone who requests arbitration. Referrals by the
mediation committee would be given the most weight.
Fred
From: Brian Corr <BCorr(a)NEAction.org>
Reply-To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 09:41:32 -0500
To: wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Qualifications for referrals to arbitration.
I think that it is very important that the Mediation Committee be empowered
to send cases to the Arbitration Committee. I understand that it is
worrisome to people that the Mediation Committee could force the
Arbitration Committee to take a case even if they felt it did not merit
review. However, the mediation process is not being taken seriously: not
only is mediation seen as something that has little to no actual effect,
there are also no negative consequences for trivial requests for mediation.
Mediators are being burned out and very little progress is being made,
despite a couple of successes.
So in short, the Mediation Committee is currently experiencing the very
thing that some members of the Arbitration Committee fear -- being
compelled to take cases where there may not be a serious intent on the part
of those asking for mediation. If those requesting mediation knew that
requests for mediation are part of a serious process that will eventually
lead to a resolution, I believe it would go a long way towards making the
system work better and reducing the burden on mediators -- and NOT but
transferring that burden to the Arbitration Committee.
Also, I think that -- just as the Arbitration Committee has policies about
accepting cases -- the Mediation Committee should be able to set its
policies about how it would decide to refer cases to Arbitration with
discussion from all interested people (and polling if needed). As a member
of the Mediation Committee, I can't imagine asking to have a case referred
to arbitration without consulting with my colleagues, but at the same time
I'm a bit apprehensive about there being some sort of requirement that the
Mediation Committee have a consensus or vote about it before a case is
referred to arbitration. However, I agree that there needs to be agreement
between both committees -- and other Wikipedians, for that matter -- on how
this would work in practice.
And just to clarify for those who aren't intimately involved in these
committees, the current system is that ONLY Jimbo can refer a case to
Arbitration, and then the Arbitration Committee votes on whether to accept
it: "Currently, the arbitrators accept referrals from Jimbo Wales only,
which they decide to arbitrate on based on the voting procedure described
at wikipedia:arbitration policy." Therefore, the change that Jimbo is
supporting would simply be to allow the Mediation Committee to refer cases
without Jimbo's intervention.
<http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2004-March/011973.html >
I think that we can discuss a set of guidelines on the mediation policy
talk page that will address all of the concerns which have been raised by
people.
Thanks,
Brian (Bcorr)
On Tue, 2004-03-30 at 15:22, Fred Bauder wrote:
As it stands we have an effective mechanism to regulate access to
arbitration. 4 arbitrators must vote to accept the case. What is
being talked about is some change which would bypass or abrogate
that mechanism. Apparently Jimbo's wish, but not absolutely sure.
One of his referals (Anthony) never got the 4 votes and he made no
comment.
Fred
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