Wikinews:Water cooler/policy/archives/2013/July

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ArbCom elections

I propose the same dates, rules, procedures as last year. (See WN:Water cooler/policy/archives/2012/July#ArbCom elections.)

The community must agree on all election procedures by July 1, and election committee members by July 10.

The deadline for nominations is 2000 UTC July 17.

Voting will take place from 2000 UTC July 18 to 2000 UTC July 30. Questions and comments may be made during that time period.

Since the incumbent members' seats expire on August 3, the election committee will declare the winners on about July 31, and the new term begins after declaration. Should any case be before the ArbCom at election time, the current committee continues to sit after turnover on cases that started under the current committee. Any new case after turnover is for the new committee.

As worked well for the past two years, I strongly recommend the committee not create a page for "questions for all candidates"; questions for each candidate should be located under that candidate. This is the way things have been done in all but two previous elections; once there was no place for questions at all (the undesirability of this is obvious, I hope), and once, three years ago, we had a page for questions for all candidates, and it turned into a political circus and an ordeal for the nominees (en.wn ArbCom is a judicial body, so should be scrupulously apolitical). I'm not the only one who experienced the circus three years ago and came away from it with a powerful conviction it should not be allowed to happen again.

We need at least two people for the election committee. Volunteers? --Pi zero (talk) 02:33, 25 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Give a poke to bidgee about that? --LauraHale (talk) 06:44, 25 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Wikinews:Arbitration_Committee/2012_election is more explicit link to rules. I have asked a couple of people to do ti. No luck yet. :( --LauraHale (talk) 08:27, 30 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm happy to help if need be. Got a question though. Going through the rules, I found this: All Wikimedia Foundation board members, full-time staff, and paid developers are deemed eligible to vote, provided they have edited a Wikimedia wiki prior to June 1, 2012, 00:00 UTC in that capacity. What does 'in that capacity' mean, esp. regarding Board members? Kind regards, Raystorm (talk) 08:38, 30 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The board/staff/dev must have edited a wiki in their capacity as a board/staff/dev prior to June 1, 2013 (for this year's elections; I'll set up the election page in a little more than twelve hours :-).

Members of the election committee don't get to vote in the election (except for voting on election committee motions).

The election committee usually doesn't have to do anything except declare the winners that everyone knows won. The rules empower any admin to strike an ineligible vote.

In my personal experience, admittedly over just the past three years, anyone who says they're willing to help out 'if needed' ends up on the election committee. --Pi zero (talk) 11:46, 30 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

To further clarify.

One cannot act in a capacity that one does not yet have; so, for example, Raystorm who was not yet a member of the board on June 1, 2013 cannot have acted in her capacity as a member of the board prior to June 1, 2013.
Editing while a member of the board does not necessarily imply that the edit was made as a member of the board. Most of my edits are not made in my capacity as a member of en.wn ArbCom. If I say, for example, "I don't think I would have to recuse myself as an Arb from such a case", I'm speaking as an Arb, and that would presumably count. If there were a really marginal case, one could imagine it might have to be decided by the election committee.
Raystorm cannot vote if she serves on the election committee; this is true regardless of all other voter eligibility criteria.

Hope that helps. --Pi zero (talk) 14:08, 30 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thank Pi zero. :-) I was more thinking about future elections (I couldn't vote on this one regardless): do I need to make one edit as Board member in that capacity? Maybe Wikinewsies did not expect someone from the project to become a bm? :-) In any case, maybe next time we can revise that rule and perhaps tweak it a little. Kind regards, Raystorm (talk) 06:39, 3 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I seriously doubt it's possible for someone to spend a year on the board without making a single edit to any wikimedia wiki in their capacity as a member of the board. Not to worry. --Pi zero (talk) 12:30, 3 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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Note section Wikinews:Arbitration Committee/2013 election#Election committee members. --Pi zero (talk) 11:56, 1 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I'm Kudu ^~I/O~ and I'm volunteering as an election committee member. I haven't been on Wikinews for very long, but I think it's a very nice project and I look forward to contributing more to it. I have more experience on Wikipedia, where I'm a reviewer, a rollbacker and a former account creator. Kudu ^~I/O~ 14:29, 3 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]