User:Guerillero/ACE2015

For some bizarre reason, I was elected to a term on the committee last year. This puts me into a position where (a) none of you can ask me to run again and (b) I have a stronger working knowledge of how the committee operates than most people. If you are thinking about running, I suggest you read these articles first. They tend to give a good overview of the job in ways that I can not. At the same time, I don't agree with all of it, but there is good stuff here:


 * Short Brigade Harvester Boris (2009). A pocket guide to Arbitration
 * Risker (2009-2014). ''Thoughts for Arbitration Committee Candidates
 * FT2 (2010). ''Arbcom the Punchball
 * Risker (2010-2013). FAQ for Arbcom Candidates
 * AGK (2012). Arbitration Committee Elections 2012
 * Risker (2013). 

Make sure you have the time
Sitting on the committee takes more time than you would expect. If you are doing your share of the work, you should spend somewhere between 10-25 hours a week answering emails, reading evidence, voting on motions, etc. Anyone who tells you a lower number than that is not pulling their own weight. If you would like a test of how much time that it takes read all of the evidence and diffs for a case and come up with a series of things that each party has done. As someone who has done it, if you are still in, traditional, formal education (high school/undergrad) do not run for the committee. It makes juggling all of the things that you have to do even harder. Make sure that you have the time to devote to ArbCom.

You will not get what you want
The committee is 15 people pulling on a rope in 15 different directions; the result ends up somewhere in the middle of those 15 forces. If you are on the committee, there are going to be decisions that you are going to strongly disagree with. You may think that this decision is the worst thing that the committee has decided in years. Know what you are going to do when (not if, when) this happens.

The job sucks
Sitting on the committee is stressful. Thing come into your inbox that you don't want to read. You know things that you don't particularly want to know. There are going to be cases where you are going to wish you didn't have to read hundreds of diffs of evidence. Issues are going to cross your desk that you don't particularly want to solve. No matter what you do, the critics and the trolls will dig into your personal life; this has lead to harassment in the past. In some ways, if you were looking to design a way to burn out volunteers and pull all of the fun and excitement out of the project ArbCom is it. Know how you are going to keep from flaming out mid term.