[Lingtyp] Call for nominations and applications: Editor of Linguistic Typology

[Martin Haspelmath]

On 26.04.17 18:00, Volker Gast wrote:
> Considering the importance of the position, I have to say that I am 
> quite unhappy with the way the procedure of finding a new editor has 
> been communicated to the membership. We learn that the president 
> "appointed" an "Editorial Search Committee", and that Claire Bowern is 
> the head of that committee. Who else is on it? Are the other members 
> also "appointed" (perhaps by Claire Bowern)? What is the function of 
> that committee? Will it select a suitable candidate? Will it propose a 
> shortlist of candidates to the members? 

This sounds as if there were a broad selection of candidates who would 
be happy to do the hard work of editing LT, and who would not mind 
standing in an election and would risk being voted down by the members.

I strongly suspect that what the ALT leadership has been doing is more 
or less what everyone else does when they are looking for a person 
willing to do a lot of volunteer work for the community.

Maybe ALT members could vote to increase our membership dues tenfold, so 
we can pay a proper salary to the editor. In that case, it would be 
quite reasonable to demand that the editorial policies are determined by 
the membership.

But if we want to continue to get these services for a very cheap price, 
we should probably be grateful that our ALT officers are doing all this 
difficult work behind the scenes for us.

Best wishes,
Martin

-- 
Martin Haspelmath (haspelmath at shh.mpg.de)
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10	
D-07745 Jena
&
Leipzig University
IPF 141199
Nikolaistrasse 6-10
D-04109 Leipzig