I don't know that happiness matters. My favorite
teacher drives me
insane--hardly makes me happy at all until I get through one of his
damn classes and realize I learned far more than I ever thought
possible. I respect him. I don't know him at all, so I can't say
whether I like him or not--but he's a superb teacher, and I also trust
him to know how to teach me.
Isn't that more important that ArbCom earns or has the respect of the
community? Than that they make the community happy? The latter seems
to be the way to set them up for no community support. If their job
is defined well, and they do it well, and they're able to do it well
because the requirements for doing so are not so onerous, then they
will, imo, wind up with the community's support for taking upon
themselves a thankless job. But happiness? How could they provide
that?
Not everyone is mature enough to respect someone they don't like. The
worry is not so much that people would be unhappy with ArbCom, but
that that unhappiness would cause them not to respect ArbCom. Without
respect, the committee is pretty much pointless.