On 1/30/06, Tim Starling t.starling@physics.unimelb.edu.au wrote:

Some committees might benefit from the guidance of qualified outsiders, but the committees should still be dominated by volunteers, either selected by a transparent and fair process with Board oversight or, as Erik suggests, with open membership.

The processes by which committees select their members have not yet been worked out. Although some committee organisers have devised lists of potential committee members, details of how members are chosen, or whether the membership will be open in any way, has been largely overlooked.

This is something that needs to be considered before the Board hands down actual authority to these committees since there is the danger we will turn from having a partially elected and accountable Board making decisions to decisions being made in a non-transparent process by the new committees, which was never my intention when I voted for this new structure.

Therefore, I would like to propose an IRC meeting be held, for all committee organizers along with all community members who want to take an interest in the future running of the Foundation. The aim will be to find ways the committees can remain accountable, legally and financially, but also accountable to the Board and community. The meeting is also to discuss how open and transparent various aspects of those committees can or should be, including their membership, processes, and actions. I'm aware there are strongly opposing viewpoints on this area, but I hope that having a planned discussion will lead to some consensus on how the committees can be best directed.

The meeting will be on Wednesday February 1 at 21:00 UTC (4pm New York, see http://tinyurl.com/dmdjo for other timezones). The #wikimedia-meeting channel is accessible on the web via http://irc.wikicities.com/meeting/ for anyone who can not access IRC in the normal way.

Angela.