I want to make clear that in this post I'm speaking not as Dean of the SC but solely as a concerned citizen. I'm a little uncomfortable posting a reply to you Mikelo on this thread where Timo had announced his resignation from the RA. And Timo, I also thank you to your service to the CDS as a Representative.
That being said though, Mikelo, since you have brought up committees of the RA, and since you are once again running for RA yourself, I feel that I must revisit something that I would otherwise have let lay.
During this 13th RA, Arria chaired a committee of RA plus interested citizens that suggested, debated and ultimately crafted a new Citizenship Act that the RA passed (http://portal.slcds.info/index.php?id=425). The whole process was an open, democratic and participatory one--with meetings announced via CDS group as well as on this Forum and Arria posted the transcripts and drafts. Are you saying that participatory democracy via committees addressing issues important to the community is "a complete dismantling of the CDS in favor of some other model?" I raise this because Arria's process as committee chair in the 13th RA stands in my mind in stark contrast to your own process as committee chair/working group chair addressing citizenship in the 12th RA. During your chairmanship, I asked you repeatedly for information and for transcripts of your Citizenship Definition Working Group meetings. You never provided any transcripts yet proposed legislation that would have changed citizenship in the CDS, an issue that is near and dear to many citizens I would imagine. I asked you for that information, which should have been public, both in an RA meeting and on this Forum (http://portal.slcds.info/index.php?id=425). To date, you have yet to release those meeting transcripts. If your secret meetings were more democratic and more in line with the intent of the CDS than Arria's open ones please do enlighten us as to your concepts of democracy.
