IMO we would do well with more democratic processes when it comes to the
board. Not having or not following democratic processes has led to a great
deal of distraction among the community these last 6 months as we have
struggled to deal with what has occurred. A by-election would hopefully get
the board on more solid footing as it would give the board greater
legitimacy. A majority of the board should be accountable to the community.
James
On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 10:30 AM, Anders Wennersten <
mail(a)anderswennersten.se> wrote:
My spontaneous reaction, like others in the Election
Committee, when
informed of Dennys resignation was to think a byelection, soon in time,
would be the "natural" way to fill the empty seat. This is how it has been
done earlier (even if now some years back) and while the appointment of
Maria after James had support of existing (informal?) thinking ("if the
Board reject any of the elected three, as they are entitled to do, they
should appoint at No 4") , no such thinking has existed to support appoint
no 5 in case of a resignation.
But the more I think the more hesitant I become, and also taking into
account the (excellent) feedback in the thread "what can we learn" that at
least to me give a feeling the election process for community election can
be adjusted (without need making it more complicated) so that a situation
like this in the future would be resolved without any need of byelection.
A Bylection
*Draws a lot a resources from WMF
*Draws a lot of resources from the Election Committee. While almost all in
out internal discussion is willing to support a byelection (even among the
ones not interested to stay on in a standing EC) , we are fewer then for
last election. Greg has resigned as some others.
*Draws a lot on energy from the community. Think of all banners that was
put up and even at some time dedicated e-mails being sent out, just the
translation was a huge effort as such
I also want to highlight that that I can see risks in running a byelection
*what if we are not able to live up to the demands of process quality and
the elections legitimacy will become disputed?
*what if we wear out the community motivation to participate in community
election, could it make next ordinary election in less the a year less
successful?
*what if the process as such reopens earlier traumas in the movement (like
James re the Board issue)?
So while not "ruling out" a byelection, I believe we should not go for
that option without thoroughly considering other option for filling the
seat. There can be other alternative then look for no 5 in last election
and we should remember it is only to fill a seat for less then a year, is a
bylection an overkill for what it can resolve?
Anders
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
--
James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine
www.opentextbookofmedicine.com