User:ElectionJune2014/Referenda/5

Only the proposer of the referendum and Election Committee members may modify this page. Substantive modifications by the proposer after the referendum has been formally proposed at 'June 2014 Referenda' will invalidate the signatures of any current supporters, and require them to sign again. Comments should be placed on the Talk page.

This page contains a proposed referendum question, the existing Charter article(s) or rule(s) which the proposer and any supporters of the referendum wish to change, elaboration on the proposal, and the proposed new text.

Open all Council seats to all Citizens, June 2014

Proposed by John Stephenson

A proposed referendum on parts of the Charter follows. If it is voted on, Citizens could support or oppose the question by indicating 'Yes' or 'No'. Under Article 37, a two-thirds majority is required to modify the Charter.

To support the establishment of a referendum on this issue, sign here.

Elaboration

1. Article 32.7 of the Charter requires that a number of Council seats corresponding to the Council's own quorum be reserved for Editors only. (The quorum is currently set by non-Charter rule as a majority, i.e. two out of three seats as of July 1, 2014.) The result is that Authors may contest only a minority of seats, even though there are more potential Author candidates and the Council is responsible for non-content issues as well as article quality-control.

1. The Author-Editor division on the Council is a hangover from the merger of the old Management and Editorial Councils into a single body. While the Management Council was open to anyone, the Editorial Council maintained a split between Authors and Editors because it was exclusively concerned with the content and quality of articles. However, now this responsibility has been combined with the administrative and technical tasks of the old Management Council, there is less reason to reserve seats for Editors alone.

2. The split between Editors and Authors also makes it more difficult for the seats to be filled, since there are fewer active Editors than Authors. It is also administratively easier to open seats to all, since when running an election only a single ballot would be required.

3. Striking part 7 of Article 32 also removes the ability of the Council to manipulate the number of Editors by altering its own quorum.

4. Removing this part of the Charter would still allow seats to be reserved for Editors or Authors if deemed necessary, as it would allow the Council to pass a rule to that effect. Such a non-Charter rule could also be amended by community-wide referendum with only a simple majority required.

Proposed referendum

Part 7 of Article 32 shall be struck from the Charter in order to remove the requirement that a number of Council seats be reserved for Editors.

Current text of the Charter

Article 32

The Citizendium Council is responsible for content and style policies. In particular, it shall

1. make all decisions regarding the content of the Citizendium;
2. establish the qualifications for Editors and establish the procedure for promoting Citizens to Editor status, provided that such qualifications and such procedures do not violate any article of this charter;
3. coordinate and supervise the Editors and their activities;
4. encourage and supervise development and organization of the Citizendium's content;
5. adjudicate disputes over content among Authors, Editors, and/or Managing Editor, and impose its decisions upon the content of the Citizendium;
6. publicly set its own rules and by-laws for its meetings; and
7. be composed of a number of members corresponding to the quorum who shall be Editors while the rest of the members shall be Citizens who are not Editors.

Notes

• This proposal can also be discussed on the forum.