--- Michael Snow wikipedia@earthlink.net wrote:
To deal with this, I propose that we take advantage of this election to restructure the Arbitration Committee and shrink its numbers to nine positions. I don't think a group as large as twelve is necessary, and there are considerable advantages to be gained from shrinkage, namely:
As time goes by more, not fewer cases need to go through the process. Thus we need more qualified people working on this to get things done.
Setting a minimum number of arbitrators needed to hear a case to 3, regardless of the number of total arbitrators there are, is the way to go, IMO (simple majority would still rule and more than 3 arbitrators could be part of any given decision in any case if they so choose). Any decision made by such a self-organized sub-committee would be subject to review by the entire ArbCom if at least one ArbCom member calls for a review and is seconded. Deliberations would be conducted on IRC and the results along with rationale would be posted on the wiki. A preponderance of evidence would explicitly be the standard of evidence (this is the standard used in civil court).
Everything else would pretty much work as it does now ; with the caveat that any minor wrinkles will be worked out by the ArbCom as time goes by.
-- mav
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