[Foundation-l] Volunteer Council - A shot for a resolution

[Ray Saintonge]

Thomas Dalton wrote:
>> I don't agree with the whole idea of having a three-part governing
>>  system for the WMF. I think it's far better to treat the volunteer
>>  council as an advisory group that serves the board, and not treat them
>>  as a separate authority structure. The board can handle the authority
>>  aspects, as it has since it's inception. What the board can't be
>>  expected to do is stay up-to-date with the minutia of hundreds of
>>  projects in hundreds of languages. The board also has a good history
>>  of staying above the fray, and choosing not to get involved with the
>>  management of the individual projects. If the board and the council
>>  aren't competitors, then we don't need to worry about any kind of
>>  judiciary (dare I say "meta arbcom") to maintain the peace between
>>  them.
>>     
> It hasn't yet been determined what the council's scope will be, but
> personally I wouldn't give them any power to micromanage individual
> projects - projects should govern themselves for the most part. No-one
> can keep up-to-date with the minutia of hundreds of projects.
I don't think that anybody is proposing that the Council should be 
micromanaging any projects.  The autonomy of projects should continue to 
be respected, and be an operating parameter for the Council.  Any broad 
initiatives in editorial policy that it undertakes should be subject to 
ratification by projects.  Probably the only projects where I would see 
it taking control are those which are unable to govern themselves, and 
even then only until we can find people to do the actual work.

The meta arbcom proposal has been mentioned before, and I have serious 
reservations about getting involved with that.  Council should be based 
on positive values, and getting involved in judicial processes with 
polarized opinions could be a snake-pit. I would be inclined to keep 
that off the Council's agenda for at least two years.

There are two aspects to maintaining project autonomy.  Higher 
structures should not meddle or impose policies, and the projects should 
not expect a white knight from Council to fix what they should be fixing 
themselves.  Thus far the Board has done well to avoid involving itself 
in these disputes, and I would expect no less from Council.

Ec