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Archiver > BOARD > 2001-02 > 0981147421


From: Ellen Pack <>
Subject: Re: [BOARD-L] Motion 01-03 Vote
Date: Fri, 02 Feb 2001 15:57:01 -0500


Yes

Ellen Pack
SE/MA CC Rep

At 11:21 AM 2/1/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>Please vote on Motion 01-03 Election Committee Procedures
>by stating your equivalent of Yes, No, Abstain.
>
>Tim
>---------
>The motion reads:
>
>A. Standing Election subCommittee
>
>The Advisory Board shall appoint a standing Election subCommittee (EC).
>This subCommittee shall operate year round. Day-to-day operating
>procedures shall be determined by the members of the EC.
>
>1. Composition of the subCommittee:
>
>The EC shall consist of 12 members total and shall include two members
>from each region, two members for the Special Projects, and two at-large
>EC members. From these members, the EC shall choose a Chair and a
>Publicist-Secretary, each to serve for one year as defined in (3)
>regardless of the length of their individual terms. The Chair of the EC
>shall vote only in the case of a tie. The National Coordinator and the
>Representative-at-Large to the Advisory Board shall both serve as
>ex-officio members of the EC. They shall not be eligible to be either
>the Chair of the EC nor its Publicist-Secretary.
>
>2. Formation of the subCommittee:
>
>The Advisory Board shall publish on the National Webpage, STATE-COORD,
>USGENWEB-ALL, USGW-CC-L, USGENWEB-DISCUSS, the Special Projects mailing
>lists, the regional mailing lists, and any other avenue appropriate to
>reach the most volunteers including, but not limited to, a personal
>e-mail to each project volunteer, a brief overview of the formation of a
>EC and a request for volunteers for such committee.
>
> >From the list of volunteers the Advisory Board shall select a temporary
>chairperson of the committee. The chairperson shall select from the
>volunteer pool volunteers to fill the following positions: Two
>volunteers from each region, two volunteers from the Special Projects
>(as a group and not two volunteers for each special project) and two
>volunteers to represent the "at large" region for a total of 12 Standing
>Election Committee members.
>
>This list of volunteers shall then be submitted to the Advisory Board
>for approval. The Advisory Board shall not be allowed to "pick and
>choose" any individual committee member. Should the Advisory Board
>disapprove the slate of members in its entirety then the Advisory Board
>shall chose a new temporary chairperson and the process shall be
>repeated.
>
>Replacement of EC members due to end of term shall be handled in the
>same manner as above. For members who need to be replaced within the
>term due to resignation or continuing non-responsiveness, a new member
>shall be chosen from the volunteer pool by the EC committee thru a
>majority vote. This majority opinion shall be forwarded to the Advisory
>Board for final approval.
>
>If deemed necessary by the EC, the EC may take on additional workers (as
>opposed to committee members) during actual election periods which shall
>be defined as the time from nominations through final vote count.
>
>The selection of the EC Chair and the EC Publicist-Secretary shall be
>made by secret ballot sent to the National Coordinator and the Advisory
>Board's Representative-at-Large for counting and verification.
>
>Any member of the project who is eligible to vote is eligible for
>membership in the EC unless they are presently running for office. EC
>members who decide to run for office must immediately withdraw from the
>EC and its mailing list. This includes the National Coordinator and the
>Representative-at-Large. Should both of them choose to run for office,
>they shall together select another Board member who is not currently
>running for office to serve as ex-officio member of the EC until after
>the election.
>
>3. Tenure of the subCommittee:
>
>Initially, each pair of EC members as outlined in (2) shall have one
>individual serving for one year and one individual for two years so as
>to stagger the turnover in EC members. Thence forward, regular terms
>(not the filling of unexpired terms) shall run for two years. Terms
>shall be from January 1 to December 31. EC members shall serve only one
>term and be ineligible for reappointment for one year after the
>expiration of a full two-year term. Those EC members serving for only
>one year initially in order to stagger terms may be re-selected for
>another term in the second year.
>
>If a member of the EC is not performing his/her duties on the EC or is
>disruptive of the EC's business, the EC may petition the Advisory Board
>via the National Coordinator and/or the Representative-at-Large for
>replacement of that member by a new volunteer. EC members be removed
>only for cause, which shall include but not be limited to failing to
>respond promptly and considerately to members of the EC, or continually
>disrupting the business of the EC with inappropriate or unprofessional
>behavior.
>
>B. Duties of the subCommittee:
>
>1. The EC shall conduct all national level elections for Advisory Board
>Representatives, including elections for National Coordinator,
>Representative-at-Large, Regional State Coordinator Representatives,
>Local Coordinator Representatives, Special Project Representatives, and
>votes on Bylaws Amendments as well as any elections required by future
>bylaws revisions or any other national level elections that may be held.
>
>2. The EC shall be responsible for maintaining current voter rolls.
>Lists of voters and email addresses shall be kept up-to-date on a
>quarterly basis. The voter rolls shall be maintained solely for the
>purpose of conducting national elections and shall be kept entirely
>confidential and shall not be supplied to the Board or to other parts of
>the project for any purpose.
>
>3. As its first order of business the EC shall compile a current voter
>list. The EC shall request the list(s) of eligible voters from the last
>election and current voter lists from each State Coordinator and Special
>Project Coordinator. All duplicate entries (i.e. volunteers who work in
>more than one state, region or position) from the above specified lists
>shall be combined into one voter record. All voter records shall b
>maintained in a database capable of producing reports sorted by regional
>basis, special project basis, state basis, national basis or other
>breakdown as may be deemed necessary in the future. The voter record
>shall also be structured so as to contain information on all
>areas/issues in which the individual voter is eligible to vote.
>
>4. Verification of e-mail address and positions shall be made by use of
>an e-mail broadcast system to send personal e-mail messages to each
>voter. Other means of verification may be used as determined necessary
>by the committee to fulfill its obligation to have an accurate, up to
>date voter list. Any disputes or discrepancies shall be: (1) resolved
>between the State Coordinator and the EC (2) If no resolution is
>possible the matter shall be referred to the regional Advisory Board
>representative for resolution. If the dispute cannot be settled by the
>region Advisory Board representative, then the matter shall be referred
>to the entire Advisory Board for resolution.
>
>5. The committee shall be responsible for keeping the voter list
>up-to-date on a quarterly basis through:
>a. Using an e-mail broadcast software to send individual messages to all
>voters verify e-mail addresses and positions;
>b. Maintaining a membership registration or contact area on an EC
>website
>c. Submitting the current list (sorted by state) to the current SC
>and/or other person chosen within the state to handle such duties;
>d. Resolution of any disputes or discrepancies shall be handled as
>stated above.
>e. each regional voter list and communications shall be maintained and
>managed by the two members chosen for/by that region. The national list
>shall be managed and maintained by the two members chosen by the
>National Coordinator and the Representative-at-Large, and the Special
>Project voter list shall be managed and maintained by the members chosen
>by the Special Project representatives.
>f. The regional and national members shall manage communications with
>the state liaisons and/or the State Coordinators, but the
>Publicist-Secretary shall manage communications to the Advisory Board
>and to the project as a whole via the main lists (USGENWEB-ALL
>USGENWEB-DISCUSS, USGW-CC-L, STATE-COORD, the regional lists) and by any
>other avenues deemed appropriate during day to day operations of the
>committee.
>g. The Publicist-Secretary shall be responsible for writing quarterly
>and post-election reports for submission to the Board and the Project.
>h. The Publicist-Secretary shall be responsible for maintaining a web
>site for the EC that shall include. but is not limited to:
> I. Contact page detailing who on the EC to contact, listing all
>members with emails both clickable and written out, their region of
>responsibility including the listing of the states in each region as
>well as noting who the current Chair and Publicist-Secretary;
> II. A page detailing eligibility guidelines including how and
>who to contact regarding problems;
> III. A general page about how the election mechanism functions in
>general (nominations, voting process, result release) to be replaced at
>an actual election time with a similar page detailing the specifics of
>that election including clickable and written out URLs to where each
>region voter goes, where to vote for national level, a listing of states
>in each region, alternative voting mechanisms for those who for any
>reason have a problem using the chosen voting mechanism, etc.;
> IV. A page linking to all public election committee reports to date;
>and
> V. During an election period a page listing all candidates with URLs
>to their campaign pages both clickable and written out.
>
>C. Eligibility of voters
>
>No restriction should be made on the right of any member (excluding
>transcribers and lookup volunteers) to vote. Therefore, any number of
>coordinators per county or state, town coordinators, and state level
>special project coordinators (as opposed to Special Project coordinators
>from the national level projects) such as Native American projects,
>African American projects, military projects organized as and part of
>the XXGenWeb state projects, shall be eligible to vote. A requirement
>that one be a member for at least 30 days prior to the start of an
>election is acceptable purely on an administrative basis. State-level or
>Special Project-level voting restrictions shall not affect a member's
>right to vote in any national level election.
>
>Challenges to a member's eligibility to vote shall in no circumstances
>be addressed by the EC. The Project Coordinator or XXGenWeb State
>Coordinator sshall address the challenge in a timely fashion so as to
>allow the person to vote in the current election. If they do not, the
>person shall be given the benefit of the doubt and allowed to vote. If a
>Local Coordinator continues to challenge the decision of the State
>Coordinator, then the matter shall be referred to the regional Advisory
>Board rep. If the Local Coordinator continues to challenge the decision
>made by the Regional Advisory Board Representative, then the matter
>shall be referred to the entire AB. The decision of the entire Advisory
>Board shall be final. However, should the matter fail to be decided
>before the end of any election or voting issue, the person shall be
>given the right to vote by default.
>
>Eligible voters may vote once for each region or special project
>position for which they are eligible, once for national positions and
>once for any national issue that may be placed on a ballot, including
>but not limited to bylaws amendments.
>
>As has been the practice in past elections, Special Project state and
>project level File Managers and Coordinators shall be eligible to vote
>in elections for Special Project Representatives. Transcribers are not
>included as defined in the Bylaws, Article VII Section 6.
>
>D. Nominations
>
>When nominations are made, the EC shall be responsible for verifying
>that the nominees are eligible to run for office, based solely on the
>criteria in Article VI, Section 9 of the bylaws. No other determination
>of eligibility shall be made by the EC, including that of good standing.
>Nominees shall be assumed to be in good standing unless determined
>otherwise by the Advisory Board or State Coordinators or Special
>Projects Coordinators.
>
>If the nominee challenges a finding that they are ineligible to vote or
>run for office, the EC shall in no circumstances make a ruling on their
>challenge. The Advisory Board should address the challenge in a timely
>fashion so as to allow the person to vote or run for office in the
>current election. If they do not, the person shall be given the benefit
>of the doubt and allowed to run for office.
>
>E. Voting Mechanism
>
>The voting mechanism selected should meet at least the following
>criteria:
>1. Accept votes (more than one per person, with the ability to drop
>earlier votes);
>2. Display appropriate ballots depending on the ID of the person or have
>clear directions so a voter can easily find the correct portions of the
>ballot for which they are eligible to vote;
>3. Send a confirmation email once the vote is accepted that includes a
>date/time stamp, and their votes;
>4. Count votes and return reliable results within 24 hours;
>5. Compile vote statistics in a way that the EC can post so that people
>can verify their votes; and
>6. Be confidential and secure.
>
>Additionally, the mechanism should be flexible, reliable, and free.
>
>A voting method meeting the above requirements should be chosen
>initially from an outside or "third-party" service. The EC shall
>research and select an outside voting service as one of its first orders
>of business after being seated. The system should be in place and
>functional as soon as possible, but no later than June 1, 2001.
>
>The EC shall also look into forming a supporting group to work on
>producing election software that meets our requirements. Should the
>Project decide that the development of its own voting software is
>desirable, a working group of programmers be shall formed who shall
>address the requirements and design a suitable program. This working
>group shall operate independently of the EC but shall report to it
>regularly so that reports on development progress may be included in the
>EC's reports to the Project.

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