On Wed, Feb 8, 2017 at 2:02 AM, Asaf Bartov <[email protected]> wrote:
> I am not a member of LangCom (just a volunteer list-admin), so I will not
> offer an opinion on Jan's request to join.
>
> However, I *will* offer an opinion about the committee's governance: the
> current structure still bears the signs of the committee's genesis, out of
> ad-hoc need, in a very different time for the movement.  Today, it behooves
> this committee, like all WMF committees (and others across the movement), to
> adopt some measures of good governance to ensure it remains fit-to-purpose
> and active.
>
> The first such measure that comes to mind is agreeing upon participation
> expectations (which should of course be appropriate for this particular
> committee's tasks and the understandable delays they often carry, such as
> waiting on external experts, etc.), and, after due notice, eventually
> removing members who do not meet those expectations.  This is a relatively
> easy way to address the "membership for life" issue without setting actual
> (renewable) membership terms.
>
> Another measure would be agreeing upon some desired size (or range) for
> committee membership, and then upon some process and criteria for soliciting
> and accepting new members.
>
> I am bringing this up as advice in my personal capacity as observer of this
> committee, resting though it does on much observation and work with other
> Wikimedia committees.  My advice does not carry any coercive force, of
> course; I just invite the committee to consider improving its governance
> along these or similar lines.

Agreed. I would put on hold any new membership requests before the
solution of the issues Asaf listed.

I would also say that we should solve these issues as soon as
possible; i.e. to put this thread as priority for our present work.

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