Language committee/Voting policy

In 2017, the Language Committee, with the approval of the Board, decided to change its rules for decision-making. So far, every decision required "consensus", defined as "no objections". Below are the changes that entered into force on 18 July 2017:

• Decisions of the Language Committee will continue to be made on the mailing list and the committee will continue to try to achieve consensus for them. If there has been no objection to a proposed decision one week (two weeks for policy changes) after the proposal was made, it is so decided.
• When there is an objection to a proposed decision, any member may call for a vote. A vote must then be held, but it should only start after the question was discussed thoroughly.
• A vote will last for one week (two weeks for policy changes). A vote starts when a member sends a mail with the exact question to the list. The subject of all the mails must include [VOTE] so that every member can easily filter and notice such important mails.
• The following majorities of participating members are needed for a decision to be adopted by vote:
  • Simple majority
    • Eligibility of projects in languages that have a valid ISO 639-3 code and are not marked as a macrolanguage in ISO 639-3.
    • Final approval
  • 2/3 majority
    • Eligiblity of projects in languages that have a valid ISO 639-3 code and are marked as a macrolanguage in ISO 639-3.
    • Eligibility of a language without a valid ISO 639-3 code, but with a valid BCP 47 code.
    • Any change of the rules, including the committee's role in possible changes of the Language proposal policy and Closing projects policy.

Language committee
For requesting users
Requests Proposal policy Handbook (requesters) Incubator manual
For members
Handbook (committee) Voting policy
Information
Common answers Discussion archives
Closing projects (voluntarily)
Closing projects policy Proposals
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Some special provisions:

• The procedures according to the closing projects policy are unchanged.
• Full consensus is still required for accepting new members. Like all personal issues, they will be discussed on the non-public mailing list.
• Any committee member can mark clearly eligible requests for new languages as eligible. Requirements are: the language has a valid ISO 639-3 code, there are no significant issues with regard to the language itself, the population of speakers is significant.
  • If a request turns out to be contentious, the commitee can remove the eligibility status again.
• It is not possible to vote on approving a project which doesn't meet the requisites for final approval.