Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 16:40, 10 November 2006

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In general, Misplaced Pages operates based on consensus, and voting is discouraged as a method of settling content disputes (though well-designed surveys can be useful to gauge and develop consensus). However, in order to fill certain specific functions in the community, there are a few instances in which we use elections to choose individuals for particular positions.

Wikimedia Board

The Wikimedia Foundation is the parent organization of Misplaced Pages. The affairs of the Wikimedia Foundation are handled by a Board of Trustees. Two of the five seats on the Board are elected by members of the Wikimedia community. The first election was for two positions that were held for one year. The second election was for two positions to be held for two years.

The first election was held from May 29 to June 12, 2004 and the second from June 28 to July 11, 2005. Both elections used approval voting. Angela Beesley and Florence Nibart-Devouard were elected as trustees between 2004 and 2005, and again between 2005 and 2007.

The next regular board election is anticipated in June, 2007. However a special election was called following Angela's resignation. See the election announcement on meta for more information.

Related links

• Election results 2004
• Information on the 2005 elections
• Election results 2005
• 2005 candidate entries
• Wikimedia bylaws
• 2006 candidates

Arbitration Committee

The original Arbitration Committee were appointed by Jimbo Wales in December 2003, and consisted of 12 members. In making these appointments, Jimbo indicated that in the future, the Arbitrators would be elected. Arbitrators each serve for three-year terms beginning on January 1. However, in order to stagger the terms, four of the original appointments (tranche alpha) were subject to re-election after one year, and four more (tranche beta) after two years; the remaining four (tranche gamma) serving for the full three years. This results in a third of the positions being open for election on an annual basis. Note that "elections" to the Arbitration Commitee only advise Jimbo on who to appoint; it is not binding on him, and he is free to appoint others and not to appoint those "elected".

Special election, July 2004

Of the original appointees, Eloquence refused the appointment, and UninvitedCompany withdrew from the Committee shortly after it began taking cases; both of these were from tranche alpha. In order to fill these vacancies, the first elections were held in July 2004 for two members to fill the unexpired terms through to the end of 2004. In his appointments, Jimbo selected Jwrosenzweig and Raul654 to serve as temporary Arbitrators.

Election, December 2004

The regular election cycle began with the December 2004 elections. This covered seven seats - the two especially-elected positions held by Jwrosenzweig and Raul654, the two trance alpha positions whose terms expire at the end of 2004 (held by James F. and The Cunctator), and three vacancies created by additional resignations (Martin Harper, Gutza, and Camembert).

In his appointments, Jimbo placed on alpha tranche: Ambi, Raul654, Sannse, and Neutrality; on beta tranche: David Gerard; and on gamma tranche: Grunt and Theresa Knott.

Election, December 2005 (January 2006)

The second set of normal elections were held in January 2006, after delays. This covered eleven seats: the two still-sitting tranche beta positions of Fred Bauder and David Gerard, the tranche gamma mid-term seat of Grunt, and the two tranche alpha mid-term seats of Ambi and Sannse, all three of whom resigned, and three additional seats (one to each tranche).

Of the temporary appointees to fill the empty seats during 2005 (James F., Fennec, JayJG, and Mindspillage, and Kelly Martin)

In his appointments, Jimbo placed on alpha tranche: SimonP, Dmcdevit, and Fred Bauder; on beta tranche: James F., Mindspillage, Filiocht, Charles Matthews, and Morven; and on gamma tranche: JayJG, Sam Korn, and Mackensen.

Election, Decemeber 2006

The December 2006 elections are scheduled to begin December 4th and run for 2 weeks. Candidates may nominate themselves and candidate statements are being accepted until December 1 at Misplaced Pages:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2006/Candidate statements. Appointees will fill the 5 seats in gamma tranche. Currently, one seat is vacant, 3 arbitrators have declined to run for re-election, and 1 arbitrator has not declared his intention.

Mediation Committee

The Mediation Committee was appointed at the same time as the Arbitration Committee, but no election procedure was specified. Instead, the mediators are a more loosely organized group, with new volunteers being added and old ones withdrawing at their discretion. The committee does not use a fixed number of positions, so it appears elections are not necessary. New mediators may volunteer or be nominated, subject to approval by the existing mediators. The community may comment on nominations, however approval for membership within the commitee lays on the consensus of the current members. There is no strict deadline for this, but nominations generally last around one month. The one official rule with nominations to the commitee is the "two oppose rule" in which any candidate recieving two opposes from a member of the committee cannot be promoted.

In addition, the committee internally elects a chair to help with coordination and facciliation of the committee's duties. However, there is no limit on the length of terms, nor the maximum number of times a person can serve.

Association of Members' Advocates

The coordinator of the Association of Members' Advocates (AMA) is an elected position. It was the first position on Misplaced Pages to actually go through an election process. The election, held in April 2004, resulted in the selection of Alex756, a founder of the association, as the first elected AMA Coordinator on April 30, 2004.

The term of service for the AMA Coordinator is undetermined but one suggestion was that it would be for six months, meaning that the next election would have been held sometime around November 2004, but this did not occur so it appears that the original suggestion that the period be undetermined is now being reviewed. The AMA is a voluntary association, and anyone can join, but membership is required in order to vote in AMA elections. Past procedure stated that members must join before the start of voting date to be eligible to vote. The inspectors of election, who were not members, conducted a secret vote, though they had knowledge of each member's vote.

A poll ending on January 14th 2005 was being held to decide when there next should be elections; a proposed on-line AMA Membership Meeting has been planned to start on January 23, 2005 as an IRC discussion to discuss the future election and other AMA activities. The purpose of the meeting is for members to discuss and clarify future activities of the association and its members.

Esperanza Advisory Committee and Administrator General

Esperanza is run by an Administrator General in charge of Executive functions within the organization and an Advisory Committee which acts as a Sub-Executive Committee responsible for assisting the Administrator General.

The Administrator General is elected at the beginning of each year to a one year term and cannot run for re-election until another Administrator General has been elected.

The Advisory Committee is elected in two Tranches, A and B. Normally, Tranche Elections occur every 4 months, but due to the establishment of the Advisory Committee, the October 2005 Advisory Committee Elections elected both Tranches, with the top two vote getters entering Tranche A, which will have another election in March 2006, and the next top two vote getters entering Tranche B, which will have another election in January 2006.

In case of a tie in any election, a runoff is conducted where Esperanzans can only choose one candidate, contrary to general elections, where Esperanzans may vote once for all candidates if they so choose.

Administrators and bureaucrats

Administrators and bureaucrats are selected on a rolling basis, based on a less formal process of community consensus. For more information, see Misplaced Pages:Requests for adminship.

See also

• Wikimedia Election Officials

• Misplaced Pages administration