Baka-Tsuki:Executive Council

This page is a draft. Information on this page is subject to change before being implemented. --Cthaeh (talk) 20:49, 1 May 2016 (UTC)

To do:

• post forum thread with group request instructions and guidelines (draft below)
• write announcements for site-notice, front page, forums
• review and approval of details by other admins

Executive council nominations and voting

Timeline

• Nominations (May 8 – May 26, 2016)

-link here

-Note the BT wiki and forums may be inaccesible for periods of time around May 20th

• Voting (May 27 – June 10, 2016)

-will be done in the admin forum

-if you do not have admin forum access and are eligible, [add_link_here request access here]

What is it?

BT generally has a loose organizational structure that can make it difficult to decide things related to rules and policy normally. To help with that, last year we set up the 'executive council', which is just a group of people who volunteer to make decisions on any issues that come up. To be fair and make sure everyone has a chance to influence policy decisions, each year people can nominate themselves and/or vote.

Procedure

To that end, we need volunteers from among BT contributors to be on the executive council and help decide policy.

Eligible volunteers should first nominate themselves on this on this wiki page. After the nomination period is over, if there are more volunteers than positions (which would be a good thing), voting will occur in the admin forums. Existing executive council members should also nominate themselves if they are willing to remain. See below regarding eligibility and voting access.

Who is eligible to nominate themselves and vote?

Any translators or editors (or other dedicated staff) on BT can nominate themselves to be on the council and vote on nominees.

Voting occurs on the admin forums, and to have access to the admin forum, you need to belong to one of the forum groups Project Translator (English), Project Editor (English), or Alt. Language Project Translator/Editor (other languages). For guidelines on who is eligible and instructions how to request access, see the [add_link_here first post in this forum thread].

In addition to voting, contributors on alternate language projects are welcome to nominate themselves as long as they can communicate in English and are willing to help decide issues on projects outside their own language.

Expectations

The primary expectations/duties as an executive council member are to be willing to read and respond regarding any policy issues that come up (such as DMCA policy details, project organization, give final interpretation on ambiguous policy). In general, volunteers should be reachable at least weekly, but ideally daily.

In general, very large policy changes should still be done only after getting feedback and support from the BT community. The executive council mainly deals with smaller policy issues and interpretation, or responding to time sensitive issues.

However, the executive council can still have a somewhat significant effect in how they decide policy is implemented. Nominees that wish to make significant changes policy can/should indicate that when they nominate themselves to gather support in voting.

Voting details

We are looking for a final number of 5 people. One spot is reserved for a server admin, so there are 4 completely open positions. However, the server admin may choose to decline his spot, so it can be that all 5 spots need to be filled with volunteers.

Once nominations conclude, an admin forum poll will be opened with the names of all nominees. Everyone can vote once for each nominee, and the nominees with the highest number of votes will be the final executive council members.

Thread to be opened in the forums

Usergroup requests

Use this thread for requesting to be added to user groups on the forum and/or wiki.  Alternatively, you can also submit the request on the [url=https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Help:Administration_Contact_Page]admin contact page on the wiki[/url].

When making a request please list
[list][*][u][b]Username  on the wiki[/b][/u] (assuming posting from you forum account)
[*][b][u]Group(s) requesting access to[/u][/b], and whether you are referring to the forum or wiki
[*]Any special circumstances (if applicable) such that your contributions are not obvious (ie you help edit before the translator posts on the wiki)[/list]
The primary groups are:

[u]Forum[/u]
[list][*]Project Translator (English)
[*]Project Editor (English)
[*]Alt. Language Translator/Editor (all other languages)[/list]
[u]Wiki[/u]
[list][*] Translator (all languages)
[*]Editor (all languages)[/list]
For translators, the requirement is generally to have translated 1 full chapter posted on the wiki.

For editors, the eligibility requirements are more ambiguous.  The general requirement is to consistently make useful contributions over multiple months.  While users who correct typos every once in a while when reading are appreciated, members of the wiki and forum editing groups should generally be more focused and/or be consistent, long-time contributors.

Announcement to be posted as sitenotice

The site will be down for maintenance for a period of time around May 20th, 2016. A more accurate date and time will be given as it gets closer.

Additionally, we have started the annual process of looking for volunteers among regular BT contributors to join this year's executive council and help resolve/decide policy on the site. Nominations run until May 27. See this page for details.

Announcement to be posted on mainpage

(Assuming we add a news section back to the main page)

13 May 2016 Downtime in May (approximately May 20) and volunteering for BT executive council open

• The site will be down for maintenance for a period of time around May 20th, 2016. A more accurate date and time will be given as it gets closer.

• Additionally, we have started the annual process of looking for volunteers among regular BT contributors to join this year's executive council and help resolve/decide policy on the site. Nominations run until May 27, after which voting will occur, if necessary, until June 10. See this page for details.