User:Anthony.Sebastian/sandbox-test

Referendum regarding Editor-in-Chief

Title: Recreating position of Editor-in-Chief and modification of Citizendium’s government

Goal

This Citizen-initiated, Charter modifying referendum proposes that Citizendium recreate the position of Editor-in-Chief, who would have broad executive powers and specified restrictions. In doing that will necessarily require modification of the governance of Citizendium (see below).

The goal of having an Editor-in-Chief is to allow a qualified candidate to essentially develop Citizendium rapidly in directions emerging from the Editor-in-Chief’s agenda.

Role of the Editor-in-Chief

• The Editor-in-Chief will be responsible for developing new ideas and programs to enhance Citizendium’s mission of developing a comprehensive compendium of knowledge. He/she will consider suggestions from the Citizenry at large.

• The Editor-in-Chief will chose an advisory group of at least ten members from among the entire Citizenry to evaluate and give feedback to the Editor-in-Chief regarding his/her proposal for developing rapidly in some specific direction.

• Included in those evaluations and feedback would be proposals to create new, or to revise, current Citizendium policies.

• The Editor-in-Chief will be responsible for approving articles, adjudicating disputes, and approaching organizations for sponsorship and/or partnership, again with evaluation and feedback from his/her advisory group.

Time commitment of Editor-in-Chief

The Editor-in-Chief will be required to maintain a near-ubiquitous presence on Citizendium, being logged in at least five days per week and actively working each logged in day for at least two hours. He/she may have a yearly vacation allotment of four weeks. He/she may take them consecutively or not.

Tenure of Editor-in-Chief

The tenure of the Editor-in-Chief will be four years, giving him/her time to put his/her stamp on Citizendium. The current (2016) Managing Editor composing this referendum will not accept a nomination for the position, except in the case that all other nominees decline.

Specified restrictions on powers of the Editor-in-Chief

One restriction on the Editor-in-Chief will be to not eliminate the verified real names policy, or to modify it in any way.

Mechanisms for removal of Editor-in-Chief from office

• The Editor-in-Chief can be impeached for malfeasance or inappropriate behavior. The call for impeachment requires support by 25% of active contributors (see below for definition of active contributors). The call for impeachment requires a Forum post describing the reasons for removing the Editor-in-Chief, and list the names of the supporters. Discussions of the reasons for impeachment will proceed on the Forum for three weeks. Within ten days after the three week discussion period a final judgement will be made by the Citizendium Council.

• the Editor-in-Chief may be removed from office through a vote of no confidence by 50% of active contributors.

Definition of active contributor

An active contributor is any user who has contributed to the wiki on two separate days in each 4 of 6 months prior to the call for their input.

Role of the elected Citizendium Council

The elected Citizendium Council will continue to serve as Citizendium's legislative body. The following emendations to its writ will apply:

• The Council will increase its membership to five members to avoid tie votes on motions proposed.
• Motions passed by the Council will be subject to review by the Editor-in-Chief who will grant final approval or veto.
• The Editor-in-Chief's veto of motions may be overridden by two-thirds majority vote of the active contributors to Citizendium.
• The Managing Editor will continue to Chair the council as a voting member.