D R A F T letter to LCCWG subcommittee

Dear Maggie,

The Board thanks you and the LCCWG subcommittee for its report containing recommendations in response to the Board's request of the LCCWG to take the lead in an effort "to help instate a moderator team for the OSMF-talk and talk mailing lists" and to "work on updating/replacing our Etiquette rules, which must focus on balancing all participants’ interests." The subcommittee correctly declined to expand its remit beyond these two requests.

You have well identified the need for community consultation and participation. The Board respectfully requests that the LCCWG subcommittee complete community consultations in a timely manner and provide to the Board a draft implementation plan for its recommendations by the March regular Board meeting, which barring unforeseen change should take place March 26. We also recommend that the LCCWG subcommittee consider implementation of the first item, moderation on osmf-talk and talk lists, in the first 2-3 months of work if possible to address an urgent need and demonstrate early progress on the remit.

In the interim, the Board encourages the LCCWG subcommittee to add members to fill any gaps that might prevent the subcommittee from being as representative of the OSM community as is practical. For instance, please consider that there are several OSM channels already under moderation, and those moderators could be productive contributors. We recognize that anyone joining the subcommittee needs to share the goals of the group. The Board also recognizes the impracticality of a group so large as to be unwieldy, but believes that representation of legitimate interests of the broad OSM community is needed to engender the trust of the OSM community.

By the same logic, the Board urges the LCCWG subcommittee, when it considers options for plan implementation, to consider our request for some kind of approval mechanism that ensures selection of moderators who have the trust of the community subject to the moderation.

Please let us know if anything in this email needs clarification or discussion, and whether there is anything the Board can do to help support your work. Whether guidance or resources, our door is open.

Again, the Board thanks you and your colleagues for the hard work done up to this point and thanks you in advance for the hard work yet to come.

For the Board,

Sincerely,