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

[Ziko van Dijk]

Let's imagine some one "discriminated" from a small country, small language,
small Wikipedia, a Maltese for example. He is one of only 5 people active in
that Wikipedia. But he speaks Maltese, English and Spanish, and is active in
Wikimedia Commons and contributes to Meta. If we would have a "tribal
system" (voting via ethnic divides / languages), he would hardly have a
chance to get into the Council. But in an open system, I would certainly
give him my vote.

I have dealt with those questions in my Wikimedia Federation plan
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Federation
giving everyone the possibility to become an "individual member", if he has
made enough edits. The experience from the open voting for the board showed
us that it works to provide the body with people from different countries.
In my opinion a Council should not be discussed seperately from the board
and the community and the chapters. The final goal should be to have a
functionable system for the whole of the Wikimedia world.

Maybe the board - by now the most democratic organ we have -
1. creates a commission (no more than ten persons, at least with one legal
expert) to discuss the main questions of the future system
2. accepts or modifies the commission's final report
3. creates a new commission (20 people) to write the new bylaws
4. submits the new bylaws to a referendum of the whole community.

Ziko





-- 
Ziko van Dijk
Roomberg 30
NL-7064 BN Silvolde