Lunarpedia Executive Committee

Lunarpedia Executive Committee Roles and Responsibilities Document FINAL version

Voted on and accepted by Moon Society Board on 09 October 2019.

Executive Summary

This document articulates the initial organization of the Lunarpedia Executive Committee (LEC) which was formed by the board of directors of the Moon Society on October 9, 2019. This document includes initial structure, ground rules, and team member commitments for the work of the committee to grow the Lunarpedia wiki.

Mission Statement

The Lunarpedia Executive Committee (LEC) is chartered by the Board of Directors of the Moon Society to manage and grow the wiki Lunarpedia.org, which is its primary responsibility. Spacepedia and other Moon Society wikis are a secondary priority.

Vision Statement

Lunarpedia will have more than 10 active volunteers and over 1000 articles (TBD) by December 31st, 2020.

Initial Committee Members

  • James Burk
  • Rose Dieteman
  • James Gholston
  • Ben Smith

Key Roles & Responsibilities

All Committee Members

  • Commit to the goals of the Committee and commit to full participation.
  • Work on different aspects of the wiki during spare time.
  • Make measurable progress nearly every week on the list enumerated in Committee Member Commitment Requirements.
  • Cross-train into all aspects of Lunarpedia to eliminate single points of failure.
  • Use Slack to coordinate activities. Pin action items and progress reports in Slack.
  • Willing to promote the wiki outside of the Moon Society to advance the effort and gain new volunteers & content.

Editorial Members

  • Determine list of categories. (one-time occurrence)
  • Reconcile new category structure and existing category structure. (one-time occurrence)
  • Determine ideal articles that fall within those categories.
  • Move existing articles to new categories.
  • Submit new articles, enhance existing articles, create content.
  • Review articles submitted by volunteers.
  • Move definitions from exodictionary to Definitions namespace and redirect URL. (one-time occurrence)(as time permits)
  • Move fiction from scientifiction to Fiction namespace and redirect URL if possible. (one-time occurrence)(as time permits)

Technical Members

  • Technical activity counts as measurable progress.
  • Continuing upgrades of Mediawiki installation with major/minor versions & security patches.
  • Maintain Visual Editor (Parsoid service) and TemplateData.
  • Install & update Extensions as needed & requested.
  • Implement and maintain themes and difficult page layouts such as the (homepage).
  • Create & maintain new extensions / widgets / plugins as needed.
  • Create templates which can be used to create new pages, at least equivalent to an “autostub.” This gives new contributors a framework.

Regular Activity Commitments

  • Slack individual progress updates and informal working sessions.
  • Quarterly (or sooner) reports to the Board & Moon Society membership on the process with the wiki. Can be put on the Agenda as a regular item.

Committee Authority

The Committee has ultimate authority over the wiki and has full autonomy to make decisions and to quickly implement major changes without getting approval externally.

  • Committee members have authority to implement ideas and major changes. The committee will vote by simple majority and act using rough consensus. In the case of a deadlock, the committee will escalate the issue to the Moon Society Board.
  • The committee will encourage non-members to contribute ideas, content, and make updates to the wiki. However, if these ideas, content and other updates do not fit the model agreed upon by the Committee, they can be rejected by the Committee. The Committee reserves the right to remove unapproved content and rollback unapproved and inappropriate edits.
  • Committee decisions can only be overruled by a Board majority.

Amendments to this Document

  • The Committee has the authority to make any changes to this document by a simple majority.
  • All changes must be reported at the next Board meeting.
  • The Board has the authority to override Committee changes with a simple majority.

Committee Member Commitment Requirements

Only people prepared to actively participate should be Committee members. Committee members should lead by example.

  • Committee Members must be current Moon Society members in good standing.
  • Committee members are required to write and submit two (tentatively) new or greatly expanded and unique articles each month, one assigned and one of interest to the contributor. The assigned article will have its topic, length, and format assigned by the full Committee. Adequacy of both submissions will be determined by the full Committee. Substantially cleaning up an existing article counts. Creating detailed graphics for new/existing articles counts. Resolving technical issues counts.
  • Committee members are required to review, edit, and approve non-Committee member submissions as they come in. The committee and its approved admins will be using patrolled edits to find changes by non-Committee members.
  • Assign existing articles to new categories.
  • Create images to replace poor quality images and for articles with no images that would be enhanced by them.
  • Committee members are required to report their progress on assigned action items weekly via Slack.
  • Committee members are required to contribute to Slack and Tycho Lunarpedia discussions and work.
  • Exemptions can be made if a Committee member is unable to fulfill these requirements due to reasonable circumstances and based on the Committee member’s long-term participation.
  • Membership on the Committee is a commitment and a promise. Failure to comply with these requirements will result in the Committee working with the member to resolve the situation. If the member continues to be non-productive and/or unresponsive to the proposed solutions, the member will be removed from the Committee for a minimum of 3 months.
  • Re-entry to the Committee is not automatic. A majority of the Committee must vote yes for a removed member to rejoin the Committee.