Resolving the Vice Chair elections situation
Folks, I’ve now spent a little bit of time contemplating the situation we are in. We issued a call for nominations for Vice-Chair. Our charter provides for 2-3 Vice Chairs. 6 qualified candidates volunteered. In the spirit of inclusion, I suggested all 6 become Vice-Chairs by acclamation. There is rough consensus for this position. However, two issues give us pause: 1. Changing rules mid-stream. We had a duly constituted process through which we began executing elections. Changing the rules after the fact demonstrates the wrong approach towards governance – even though we are a very collegial group with a common, shared goal. 2. If everyone had known that all nominees would/could become Vice-Chairs, potentially **more** nominees would have volunteered. Changing the rules after the fact therefore potentially disenfranchises those folks. As a result, I am asking Don Hollander to resume the election process for the 3 Vice Chair positions, and to refresh everyone’s memory by re-listing the slate of candidates. Some/most of the candidates will be attending the ICANN58 meeting in Copenhagen, which will allow folks to engage with them. Don, please let the election run until after the close of the ICANN58 meeting, but let the voting commence in the next couple of days (once you are done traveling to Copenhagen). We are a community driven and bottom-up initiative. I am so pleased that we have six excellent candidates who have come forward to serve the community and further our drive towards a world where all TLDs and emails will be universally accepted. Regards, Ram Chair, Universal Acceptance Steering Group
Ram (and Don): On 2017-03-09 01:57, Ram Mohan wrote:
… I suggested all 6 become Vice-Chairs by acclamation. There is rough consensus for this position.
However, two issues give us pause:
1.Changing rules mid-stream. We had a duly constituted process through which we began executing elections. Changing the rules after the fact demonstrates the wrong approach towards governance – even though we are a very collegial group with a common, shared goal.
2.If everyone had known that all nominees would/could become Vice-Chairs, potentially **more** nominees would have volunteered. Changing the rules after the fact therefore potentially disenfranchises those folks.
I think these are very wise observations. I agree that these issues are important, and justify holding the election.
As a result, I am asking Don Hollander to resume the election process for the 3 Vice Chair positions, … Don, please let the election run until after the close of the ICANN58 meeting, but let the voting commence in the next couple of days….
I don't recall seeing any specifics about the method of casting votes or counting votes. I'll repeat my advice from a few weeks ago: On 2017-02-23 20:47, Jim DeLaHunt wrote:
Second, if there is to be an election, there are a variety of rules for running elections. This is something I am quite interested in. For a group like this, my belief is that Preferential ballots, counted by a Single Transferable Vote method <https://www.opavote.com/methods/single-transferable-vote> would be a good choice for electing three vice-chairs from more candidates. (To elect only one chair, the related Preferential ballots, counted by an Instant Runoff Voting method <https://www.opavote.com/methods/instant-runoff-voting> works well.)
I'm happy to assist Don with the mechanics of the elections, if he wishes. Other groups I am in have used the OpaVote service <https://www.opavote.com/methods/single-transferable-vote>, and it works well. Best regards, --Jim DeLaHunt, Vancouver, Canada -- --Jim DeLaHunt, jdlh@jdlh.com http://blog.jdlh.com/ (http://jdlh.com/) multilingual websites consultant 157-2906 West Broadway, Vancouver BC V6K 2G8, Canada Canada mobile +1-604-376-8953
Thanks Jim. Over to you, Don On Mar 9, 2017 2:03 PM, "Jim DeLaHunt" <jfrom.uasg@jdlh.com> wrote:
Ram (and Don): On 2017-03-09 01:57, Ram Mohan wrote:
… I suggested all 6 become Vice-Chairs by acclamation. There is rough consensus for this position.
However, two issues give us pause:
1. Changing rules mid-stream. We had a duly constituted process through which we began executing elections. Changing the rules after the fact demonstrates the wrong approach towards governance – even though we are a very collegial group with a common, shared goal.
2. If everyone had known that all nominees would/could become Vice-Chairs, potentially **more** nominees would have volunteered. Changing the rules after the fact therefore potentially disenfranchises those folks.
I think these are very wise observations. I agree that these issues are important, and justify holding the election.
As a result, I am asking Don Hollander to resume the election process for the 3 Vice Chair positions, … Don, please let the election run until after the close of the ICANN58 meeting, but let the voting commence in the next couple of days….
I don't recall seeing any specifics about the method of casting votes or counting votes. I'll repeat my advice from a few weeks ago: On 2017-02-23 20:47, Jim DeLaHunt wrote:
Second, if there is to be an election, there are a variety of rules for running elections. This is something I am quite interested in. For a group like this, my belief is that Preferential ballots, counted by a Single Transferable Vote method <https://www.opavote.com/methods/single-transferable-vote> would be a good choice for electing three vice-chairs from more candidates. (To elect only one chair, the related Preferential ballots, counted by an Instant Runoff Voting method <https://www.opavote.com/methods/instant-runoff-voting> works well.)
I'm happy to assist Don with the mechanics of the elections, if he wishes. Other groups I am in have used the OpaVote service <https://www.opavote.com/methods/single-transferable-vote>, and it works well. Best regards, --Jim DeLaHunt, Vancouver, Canada
-- --Jim DeLaHunt, jdlh@jdlh.com http://blog.jdlh.com/ (http://jdlh.com/) multilingual websites consultant
157-2906 West Broadway, Vancouver BC V6K 2G8, Canada Canada mobile +1-604-376-8953 <(604)%20376-8953>
participants (2)
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Jim DeLaHunt -
Ram Mohan