Once I was made aware of the requests, I took a look at the organization type. I first added the "date founded" and "date dissolved" properties which are uncontroversial.

Paul said:

Right now there is a property called "key people" in the organization type which directly links to type /people/person. Paul's request is a reasonable one -- that this shouldn't be a direct relationship between organizations and people, but a mediated one that holds the position title and the beginning and end dates of the term.

This matches exactly the pattern we use for the /business/employer type which can be used as a co-type for companies, universities or any other topic that employes people. Type /business/employer expects a CVT (mediator) of type "employment tenure", which includes properties for "employee", "job title", "start date" and "end date".

One obvious choice would be to co-type any organization with "employer" and fill in the key people under the "employees" property along with their title/position and begin and end dates.

However, many people in organizations are not employees. Is there a key distinction in organizations between employees and volunteers? Should they get separate properties? Or should there be a property called "unpaid personnel" or "volunteers" that points to a CVT with person, position/title, start date and end date (that looks just like the "employment tenure" CVT)?

So the proposal might be: if the organization has employees, co-type it with employer and use the "employees" property just like you would with a company. If the organization has volunteers, you put them into a "volunteers" property that's part of the organization type.

Ah, the joys of data modeling! So much to balance, so little time. Remember: simpler is better. Lump by default, split only when necessary.