Wikipedia:Governance reform/Policy Committee version 1

Please edit this proposal!

This is a proposal for a specific form in which the suggested governance reform might be developed.

It is proposed that a somewhat large number of editors, perhaps in the range of thirty to fifty, be selected through some process, possibly election, to fill positions in a policy committee. This committee would exist to carry out certain specific functions.

• (1) They would be able to draft proposed policies and guidelines at the request of the Arbitration Committee, the legal office of wikimedia, the Wikimedia Foundation itself, Jimbo or any other parties of the foundation, and, conceivably, by the editors of wikipedia, possibly through a discussion which has had a consensus of editors agree that such a proposal would go forward.
• (2) At least initially, they would have the remit of reviewing existing policies, and possibly guidelines, to determine the best and most comprehensible way of phrasing them, and possibly consolidate them in fewer pages.
• (3) It would have the capacity to propose to the community new policies or guidelines, based on the initiative of the members of the committee itself, should they see a clear and immediate need for such a new policy or guideline.
• In all of these cases, however, it almost certainly be the case that any individuals who would be involved in activing writing or creating a new proposal would be expected to recuse themselves from actively taking part in the discussion of whether to approve a new proposal or not. Such recusal would also allow those "drafters" the option of further refining the language of a proposal should it be found to need such.

None of these functions would be exclusive to the members of the committee, however. The wikipedia community would be encouraged to take part in the discussion at all points by the use of a number of pages relating to any extant proposal, using basically the same arrangement currently used by the Arbitration Committee.

If and when a new policy or guideline is created, that policy or guideline would be subject to review and changes, using substantially the same procedure used in the creation of the new policy or guideline. The process to be used here could be substantially the same as that used by the Arbitration Committee regarding clarifications of prior rulings, enforcement requests and clarifications.