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In December 2005, the second annual election for the Arbitration Committee may be held to advise Jimbo as to how to appoint to the Committee.

At least nine of the twelve seats will be up for change, as the terms of Fred Bauder and David Gerard will expire on December 31, 2005, as will the temporary placements of James F., Fennec, JayJG, Mindspillage and Kelly Martin. Finally, Sannse has resigned from the Committee.

When the Arbitration Committee were first appointed, Jimbo intended that Arbitrators serve staggered three-year terms to provide continuity. In any such election, Arbitrators are entitled to run for re-appointment. The remaining appointed seats will be up for election when their terms expire.

Election procedure

The result of the poll was 19-3-25-5 (plus some votes like 'don't care' and 'abstain'). Therefore we will be using my second proposal.

"Hybrid approach: Jimbo can put forward candidates for community approval, 50% majority is enough. And also the community can put forward candidates for Jimbo's approval, with the same 50% majority being enough. Any dually approved candidates above the number of seats on the ArbCom go into a pool of reserves. Jimbo states a general intention to always appoint candidates approved by the community as a matter of convention, while reserving the right to refuse to seat any particularly problematic candidates."

The community can and should begin a community approval process immediately, patterned as closely as is reasonable after the RfA process. The point of the process should be to generate a pool of acceptable candidates from whom I can make appointments.

Notice that the way this is designed, all candidates must go through the approval process, so my role in putting forward candidates is essentially just a way for me to communicate pre-approval to the community. I don't plan to do that in this term unless it appears that we are overlooking someone particularly noteworthy.

Proposed changes

• A provisional ruleset for this year's procedure is being discussed here.
• A set of proposed modifications to rules made by jguk.
• A proposed overhaul of elections and the dispute resolution system generally, made by Michael Snow.
• Quadell's proposal - It can all be very simple, if we want.
• Wikipedia:Dispute resolution reform (WP:DRR) - for general and organized overview of proposed changes to DR system and process.

See also

• A poll just completed to gauge community input and feedback about the selection process.
• A proposal at Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Code of Conduct.