Hi all, I am Tom and I am an Admin, Arbitration Committee (ArbCom) Clerk, and CheckUser. I previously was on ArbCom for the 2015–2016 term and was an Oversighter from 2013 until 2018. I am, however, a content creator at heart with 1 FP, 2 FAs, 6 FLs, 12 GAs, and 43 DYKs. My work has been mostly focused on the folk music, higher education, and low-art of the United States.
Due to my close to a decade of experience in the arbitration sphere, I have developed some opinions on the arbitration process. Many of them have filtered into my Guide to Arbitration. The workshop continues to be my least favorite phase of the arbitration process. It is mostly utilized as an MMA octagon for the parties to fight in while the arbs review the evidence rather than as a way to help solve disputes. It is foolish to expect editors who have never been involved in arbitration to become scholars of the committee who can write their draft of a proposed decision with no assistance. During the summer, I worked on a draft of an improved workshop. It adds hints to guide parties and unburies the "Questions to the parties" to try to get the arbs to take part in the phase. It is a small step, but I think it could improve the process dramatically.
I am one of the cadre of Arbitration Enforcement admins who have been waiting for the committee's overhaul of discretionary sanctions for the past two years. It is ridiculous that this is the third election in a row where candidates can run on DS reform. I don't know if the holdup is due to disinterest, filibuster, or horsetrading, but after 3 years, we are past the time for work behind closed doors. The committee released a draft this year. It deserves a public up or down vote after the hundreds of hours of community time that went into providing feedback for it and on it.
The modern committee spends a large proportion of its time dealing with appeals of CheckUser and Oversight blocks. This is a misallocation of resources. There is a group of people who are active CheckUsers and Oversighters: the functionaries. The committee should explore ceding this work to the functionaries en banc rather than keeping it in-house.
I would be honored to have your vote in this year's election.
The fine print
I am over 18 years of age
I have access to CU and already have identified to the WMF
