On 6/5/06, Delirium delirium@hackish.org wrote:
This is a semi-digression, but one thing that would also be nice to know is how to get on those (new or old) committees, and what sorts of time and expertise they require. I know I'd be willing to devote some time to a committee if it aligned with my interests and expertise, but the process is currently a bit murky to me.
Hi Mark, you can find all existing committees listed at: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_committees
Not all committees have their details or procedures outlined yet (I'm not sure if some of them are operational), but the following committee pages detail how their membership is managed: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special_projects_committee http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chapters_committee/Rules_of_procedure http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications_committee
With regards to time, I can only speak for the committee that I'm involved with (the special projects committee), and even still, it really depends on the kind of work that you're interested in doing. Some work is constant (ie evaluating and responding to requests for collaboration, requests to use our content in some way etc.), some work is occasional, like writing grant proposals, but, overall, it's an hour or two per day along with a three hour or so meeting more or less every two weeks. Again, different committees will have different workloads, methods, so it's difficult to say exactly what and how much is involved.
With regards to expertise, that's something that I'd like to get a much better picture of, as we sometimes get proposals for things that we are just not currently equipped to deal with, and it would be good to know who in the community to turn to at times like those. I think I can speak for the whole SPC that we'd love to hear ideas on how to improve this process, get more people involved, and generally get through our burgeoning workload that bit faster and more efficiently.
Cormac