If by "a lot" you mean "
three", then yes
a lot do currently reside in the UK...
However the
site founder does not, as you might realise if you read the
site history.
To answer your question: Staff members are chosen based on their merit, as defined and observed by the currently active staff.
Basically we identify established members we feel would be good at the job (with all that it entails) and offer them a position. If they accept, they join the team. The process is wholly disconnected from post count, reputation, or any other forum tracked variable. Currently there is no established way of recommending a member of the forum to us, for consideration, with the exception that we routinely exclude anyone who puts forward their own name
.
There has been some internal debate as to the relative worth of trying to involve forum members / member representatives in the background processes of the forum (i.e. the workings of the "mysterious council" as you put it, or "what the staff do to keep things running smoothly") but as yet we've not come to any sort of agreement on
if or how we would go about this...