On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 2:43 PM, James Alexander jalexander@wikimedia.org wrote:
On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 11:30 AM, Itzik - Wikimedia Israel < itzik@wikimedia.org.il> wrote:
Any response or input from the Election Committee?
I think Greg said it relatively well earlier as the coordinator for the committee (I am it's staff advisor). At this point the committee has decided on the voting requirements and it is highly unlikely to change for the current election cycle. They did have serious discussions about everything mentioned in this thread both on their list and during the first committee meeting but in the end decided that they did not believe there was a strong need for change right now. When this conversation came back up it was broached whether we wanted to revisit and no one said expressed a desire to.
Also as Greg said I think this is a good topic for a permanent election committee which I very much think should exist.
James Alexander Community Advocacy Wikimedia Foundation (415) 839-6885 x6716 @jamesofur
This is a weakness in the process. Itzik raised an issue and was told it was too early to discuss. He raised it again when the elections approached, and is being told its too late. Obviously the "committee" conducted its deliberations on this question in secret, which is a strange approach considering there have been requests and a desire for open discussion from the community.
It's also worth pointing out that many of the people in this discussion agreed that the community requirements are so low that there should be no reason any interested employee (of the WMF or elsewhere) can't qualify under other criteria, eliminating the need for a special franchise for WMF employees.
Unfortunately it appears that anyone interested in adjusting the criteria will need perfecting timing while broaching this subject next year.