Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Texas Cloverleaf
On 5 vs 7
I support 5 members because it allows the council to quickly and effectively make decisions without being bogged down by lag in waiting for multiple members. It also makes it easier to centralize power and to monitor activity among those members. With 7 members, constant activity becomes harder to maintain as a group as compared to 5. Furthermore, the matters that the council will be dealing with will oftentimes be smaller matters, and thus better suited to a faster, leaner council than to a larger, more bloated on. The OU council is a good example of when 5 members works well.
Speaking from experience from the 7 man RU council, activity becomes more difficult to maintain. If I recall correctly, since its institution at the beginning of March or so, we have had 4 changeovers due to lessening activity or waning interest in the tier. This requires a change on average every 2 months. As people have said we have no shortage of capable members to fulfill these positions. Therefore should someone abdicate tehir position in a 5 man council there should be no issue replacing them with a capable member.
Finally, 5 man councils also foster improved group dynamics and are easier for a chairman to maintain as a whole.
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I think 7 won't get bogged down as long as we don't require every councillor to have his voice heard - if four vote a certain way there is no need to hear from the other three.
Activity in ASB is strong as is - with something like Pokemon people are far more likely to drift in and out of, whereas ASBers, especially those in the running for the council, have often been here for a long time and very few consider leaving.
I also think ASB has a great group dynamic anyway, fostered by the irc channel - it's far more open and far less imposing than pokemon irc channels or showdown/po chats and most people get on without any notable rivalries or dislikes between users, so dynamic and maintenance should be no easier to keep in a five-person than seven-person council for a community such as ours.