I think that they should work like moderators in each board. Each board has a few merit sources, voted by members of that board. I don't think the community is active enough to achieve this and I do believe it's subject to manipulation by alts, though in a world where the sense of community was at this level where it could work, that would be a cool thing to see.
Great suggestion! Merit sources for a board shouldn’t be members of that same board. Instead, they should be assigned to different local boards, especially now that translations work effectively.