[Wikimedia-l] "Clerk" role description?

[Risker]

On 1 May 2012 16:47, Michael Snow <wikipedia at frontier.com> wrote:

> On 5/1/2012 12:37 PM, Risker wrote:
>
>> On 1 May 2012 15:00, Sue Gardner<sgardner at wikimedia.org**>  wrote:
>>
>>> Hey folks,
>>>
>>> I had a 90-second conversation the other day with SJ about whether it
>>> would make sense for us to use volunteer "clerks" as support for the
>>> FDC (Funds Dissemination Committee), and I'm wondering if anyone can
>>> point me towards any documentation of the role -- a description of how
>>> it's typically used, either inside Wikimedia or outside. I have the
>>> gist, but am curious to learn more, if anyone's got links they could
>>> point me towards.
>>>
>> I'd suggest that before giving any thought to whether or not the FDC
>> process would benefit from clerking, it would be better to determine what
>> that process actually is, and whether or not the members of the FDC think
>> that clerking would be useful.  In other words, this decision is at least
>> a
>> few months down the pike.
>>
> I don't know, is it actually that hard to make a determination that
> creating this kind of support role is useful? We may not have worked out
> all the details of the process, but it seems clear that the process will
> have a certain "weight" appropriate to the importance people are placing on
> this issue. That could make it quite natural to need clerks, even if we
> don't know yet exactly what the clerks will do. If people like SJ and Sue
> are anticipating a possible need, that's a decent indicator that we might
> as well have the conversation and not simply postpone it.
>
> If some kind of clerk position is created, I expect it can evolve fairly
> naturally as the funds dissemination process itself gets more developed.
> It's not that different from arbitration clerks, who have picked up various
> tasks over time as it was deemed practical and helpful for them to do so.
>
>
Really?  As best I can tell (given the paucity of information available at
this point), it won't be any more complex than the Grants Advisory Group;
that certainly doesn't need clerking.  I am actually quite concerned that
there is consideration to create a bureaucracy to support a committee whose
responsibilities haven't even been delineated; doing so would set the
course for the committee before the FDC Advisory Group even gets its teeth
into the question.

More particularly, since Sue has asked about "job descriptions", the two
"clerk" areas on English Wikipedia are sockpuppet investigations and
arbitration committee pages. The former is quite active in the process
itself, including blocking of suspected sockpuppets; in many cases, they
act as "checkusers without the tool".  Arbcom clerk responsibilities are
more oriented to keeping cases together, properly formatted, and tracking
voting.  English Wikipedia has repeatedly refused to permit the development
of any other recognized "clerking" roles within the project, usually with
good reason.

Risker/Anne