Looking for a new style leader!

The style guideline process has been stuck in neutral for quite some time and I was hoping that Panda could take over this role from Don Redman (who had been swallowed up by real life quite some time ago), but real life is about to swallow Panda for the foreseeable future. Thus, I start the search for a new leader of the Style Council once again.

The new leader for the style council would need to:

1. Review the process by which style guidelines get updated. Obviously this process is flawed.
2. Devise a new method by which the style council works on style guidelines. The new leader can choose to use the Wiki, the bug tracker, mailing lists, forums, smoke signals or anything else they choose. This process has to fit with the structure of MusicBrainz and our bottom up method for working together. I will personally work with the new style leader to define this process.
3. Document and implement the new process
4. Lead the style council.

Qualifications of the new style leader include:

1. Excellent communication skills
2. Excellent knowledge in music, especially classical.
3. Must not be embattled in current proposals. Ideally the leader would be neutral on existing proposals and keep an objective stance on new proposals as they move through the process.
4. Skillz in bringing about consensus. We need a strong communicator who can settle long raging debates and use their judgement to settle debates and remove contentious points from discussion. This leader needs to keep people focused when debates rage out of control.

I would very much like to see the new style process be a bottom up process where the community brings about proposals much like they do today. The major difference is that the new style leader would have the authority and presence to move these proposals along when they get stuck. My vision is that this person isn’t a nanny who micro-manages the community of style people, but rather one who provides lubrication for the process to run smoothly. If something gets stuck, forgotten or argued to death, the leader should jump in an rectify the situation.

If this position interests you, please speak up in the comments. If you think someone in the community would make an excellent leader, but suspect that this person isn’t going to speak up, please nominate them in the comments. I will take the proposed people, chat with them and chat with members in the community to see how they feel about this person. Then, I’ll make a benevolent dictator decision and install the new style council leader and set them off to their task.