Some lessons from WMF - how about a layered model of governance?
Erik: re: skills slots...
I'm thinking that folks should also be able to perform certain roles - that the community needs, and/or be able to find / recruit others who have those skills...
Brent - I wasn't clear what you meant by your suggestion of limiting membership to one year. Were you referring to council terms or membership?
I like the idea of the dual layers for all the reasons stated above. Staggering the council terms with 8 serving for 2 years (should it be 7?) and 7 (8) serving for one year is a good idea - and getting this underway sooner rather than later also makes sense.
How will 'candidates' present themselves? In addition to a bio, should candidates state what specific skills/vision/ideas they can bring to move wikieducator forward?
Regarding reaching our goal by 2015 - that would be swell (as they used to say) - but I think that goals will be further developed each year, and wiki will likely still be a useful tool in education for some time to come.
Hi Govtan,
In addition to bio a statement of skills/vision/ideas will help the electorate.
Regarding the nominees for the elected members - I do think that we should specify some minimum metric of demonstrated contribution to WikiEducator. We would need the nominations to be confirmed by a "trusted" wikieducator however we define this and can invite nominations to present themselves in the Wiki.
I feel that we should keep the requirements for valid voters simple. User account with some entry on their user page. In other words community, elected officials are elected by the community.
Given the scope to expand the Council with appointed members this will cater for bringing skills on board who may not be active members of the WikiEducator community.
Cheers
Another Question[edit]
On what basis will these elected and appointed members be evaluated? When, by whom and what means?
Hi Randy,
Good questions. This is where I think we need to head Philips advice, namely that WikiEducator is a Wiki. We must be very careful not to over bureaucratise a project driven by volunteers.
We should encourage self organisation and autonomy and carry these principles of self organisation through into our governance models. Personally I don't support the notions of formal evaluations for appointed members. I feel that we should leave the basis on which appointed members are "elected" in the hands of the elected Council members that are charged with finding out the best way to lead our project.
It would be useful for us to think about guiding values in helping the Council in takeing these decision:
For example the principle of regional representation and transparent governance. Keeping things simple will enable us to move and respond quickly to changing needs.
Cheers
