[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia Leadership (was NY Times article on gender gap in Wikipedia contributors}

[Fred Bauder]

> How about this for starters for a leadership council. 5 members,
> serving staggered 3 year terms, and possibly subject to recall, with
> the following duties:
> - To engage members of the community in open and frank discussions
> about policy, technical, and content/style issues.
> - To participate in discussions of broad-reaching issues, lending
> moderation and reminding the community of it's core responsibility and
> values.
> - To rule on the presence or absence of consensus where it is contested.
> - To occasionally impose decisions based on the advice of the
> community where the consensus process cannot produce a decision, and
> where the decision would reflect both a majority viewpoint and the
> long-term interests of the project.
> - To occasionally call referendums on technical and policy matters
> after sufficient discussion has taken place, and where the wishes of
> the community are not clear.
> - To use the site notice and watchlist notice functions to call
> attention to broad-reaching policy and technical discussions requiring
> more community input.
> - To impose temporary policy decisions where timeliness is critical
> due to potential for disruption to the community or gross violation of
> our core values.
>
> The community would retain the ability to govern through consensus,
> and would further have the ability to call referendums on any decision
> imposed by the council. Overturning a council decision would be by
> simple majority, so that the council would lack the ability to go
> completely against the wishes of the community.
>
>
> Someone take this and keep editing please :)

Later with elaboration, but very very promising initiative.

Fred