Replying to both Evan's and Darlene's e-mails at once: DT> Did you read the job description? DT> So, why would somebody apply for a job that they DT> are unable/uncommitted to do? Maybe we should discuss the draft job description in another post. To summarize, I think it under-estimates both the time commitments and the necessary skills. We need a more detailed document. In my experience, volunteers are usually over-motivated and too optimistic with regard to their possible time commitment. Hence my suggestion for a thorough job description, so they are not taken by surprise. DT> Also, how are the RALOs supposed to know which of their elected reps are DT> performing or not? They have NO idea who shows up to which f2f DT> meetings. They have NO idea if they are attending all of the calls and DT> managing the WGs, either, without performance evaluations being done in DT> a timely manner. At best, those statistics give a truncated image of the reality. It only covers quantity, not quality, or ALAC-related work outside the committee. If I were an ALS that needs to elect a returning ALAC member, I would be much more interested in what he/she voted in previous polls, to see if I share his/her opinion. I would check his/her blog posts, tweets, personal comments to consultations, etc. That seems to me more important that to know he/she physically present to a specific meeting (but was actually too jetlagged to contribute). DT> If things were run as you suggest, being elected becomes a popularity DT> contest with no need to actually DO anything! EL> Patrick's emphatic defence of ALAC unaccountability is duly noted. I though I expressed a more nuanced opinion that what both of you seem to understand. As I said, if someone accepts a position, he/she is morally obligated to deliver to the best of his/her ability. Yes, Darlene, you are right, to a certain extent, this is a popularity contest. People get elected because the voters think they will do a good job and represent their opinion. Just like in parliament/congress elections, there might be representatives that will under-perform. This is exactly why their term is limited and they need to stand for re-election every few years. You may suggest to some people to step down, put pressure on them either directly or through their RALO. I can agree on this, while noting at the same time that the proposed statistical criteria do not give the whole picture. But I would not want to send out a message to the RALOs that their vote is ultimately not important, because we will have a group of people who will sovereignly decide who are the bad guys/girls and substitute themselves for the voters. This seems to me like a negation of the democratic process we have tried to set up within the At-Large. I will stop here, because I think the ALAC spends too much time on its internal processes, when it could actually spend time on policy instead. Let us get these documents out to the community for review, integrate their input and have the ALAC vote on it. Patrick -- Blog: http://patrick.vande-walle.eu Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/patrickvw