Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2022/Candidates/L235/Statement

L235

Hi, I'm Kevin. I've been editing for eight years and have served on the Arbitration Committee for the last two years. I'm running for a second term because I love our project and what we stand for. We today provide high-quality information through an open, volunteer, consensus-based system to the world for free — an incredible feat and one worth preserving.

Serving on the Committee is not always easy, but it is a vital task, and I am deeply proud of the work of the two cohorts I have served with.

During my first term, I strove to address problems head-on, especially when it's hard; to keep an open mind; to act evenhandedly but compassionately; to seek information before making decisions; to compromise and facilitate consensus; and to treat all with dignity and respect.

If I am elected to a second term, I will focus on:

• Discretionary sanctions. During my first term, I was a drafting arbitrator on discretionary sanctions review. While the formal review process is nearing completion, much work remains. I hope to focus on the hard implementation work of writing easier-to-understand templates, setting up the new system of topic-specific guidance pages, responding to feedback, and helping folks with any growing pains the system might experience.
• The clerk system. I was a clerk for almost six years, and after two years as an arbitrator, I think the clerk system is not well suited for today's ArbCom. Our dedicated and hardworking clerks spend much time to have little work to do (clerk training now takes 6+ months because there's little work for trainees to be trained on). At the same time, ArbCom's internal processes are in desperate need of clerical assistance that the clerks currently can't help with. While I don't have all the answers, I will advocate for streamlining the clerks' current tasks while exploring ways in which the clerks can relieve ArbCom's administrative burden in more areas.
• ArbCom's relations with the Stewards, the Ombuds Commission, the WMF, sister project ArbComs, and similar bodies, such as the forthcoming UCoC Coordinating Committee. These groups have an impact on ArbCom's work, and I will prioritize more regular communication with them.
• Block appeals. Checkuser and other block appeals take a massive portion of ArbCom's effort, but ArbCom is not well positioned to handle most appeals. I will explore ways to reduce the appellate burden and speed up the disposition of appeals.

Declaration: As a current arbitrator, I am identified to the Wikimedia Foundation and will continue to comply with the nonpublic information policy. On occasion I edit using L236 (talk · contribs); I also have some non-editing accounts.

• L235 (talk · contribs · count · logs · target logs · block log · lu · rfas · rfb · arb · rfc · lta · checkuser · socks · rights · blocks · protects · deletions · moves)