Proposed Amendment #1: Elections and Procedures

[The Valeyard]

Proposing that the following Amendment be added to the Charter's relevant articles on Elections.

RESOLVED: To be added to the Charter Upon Approval of the Membership

ELECTIONS

1. Timing

a. National Elections shall take place beginning in the first Week of November each year for the offices of:
 - Lord/Lady President
 - Castellan
 - Gold Usher

b. Local Elections shall take place beginning in the first week of March every year for the offices of:
- Commander
- Bronze Usher

c. Emergency Elections
When necessary, Emergency Elections shall be arranged by the appropriate officers.


2. Voting Rights for Elections

a. Voting rights in Elections shall be extended to all members, regardless of Endorsed status, so long as they are aged sixteen or older, and so long as they are registered as members of  the Order of Gallifrey forums.

b. In order to ensure a transparent, "rigging free" Process . Voting rights shall not be extended to individuals who join one week or less prior to an Election Poll (Emergency or Otherwise)



3. Positions Not Filled

a. In the case of an office not being elected due to no individual standing for the position or due to the position being vacated without a succesor, the Lord/Lady President shall have the right to propose a suitable candidate to fill the position within the Local Sector. The Local Sector will have one week to vote "Yeah" or "Nay".

b. In the case that the Local Position shall take place in the Lord/Lady President's Home Sector, then the right to nominate will rest with the Castellan, and the Lord/Lady President shall be expected to recuse him/herself.


- Alex

[Deleted]

Question regarding 2A - Is this a permanent change? If so does it allow all members to also vote on Endorsed costumes and not just endorsed members? Doesn't this take a major reason for endorsement out the window making the process less important?

In regards to point 2b, I like this change. I had some people I am friendly with join the group within the last couple of days of the election. They came in and voted for me and it did make what was really a pretty one sided victor in Coleen's favor far closer than it should of been. Some of this problem should remedy itself when we are no longer voting with such a small member base - although apathy did seem to play a role in the elections as well.

Related - I think we need to greatly streamline the process for membership. I told these same friends about the group a while ago and the process to get access was fairly tedious.

Join Facebook, Join the proper Sector, Register for Forums and wait awhile to be approved, then post on Facebook to say which Sector you should be in and then wait awhile to be added there.

I feel like maybe we could take out a couple of those waiting periods to not deter potential new members? At the very least we should probably have it all written down some where with links to make it very clear to the new members what they are in for.

[Keely Graesser]

2A - I think allowing non-endorsed members to vote is a great idea for the time being, but maybe in 2016 or 2017 we should change it to endorsed members only for costume endorsements. I do think ALL members should always be able to vote for leadership though, regardless of endorsement status.

On a similar note - and if we want to get nit-picky for the future - I think parents of endorsed members under 16, that are members themselves, should be allowed the same rights as endorsed members (when/if endorsed members gain additional rights). My reasoning behind that being that often the parents are the ones that make the costume - at least when that costume is for a six-year-old (who yes, has gotten endorsed BEFORE me lol).

As for Stephen's related suggestion:


Since Facebook and Proboards don't "connect" in any way, I don't really see a way to streamline the process unless we eliminated the forums or created and coded our own content management system with one login across the board. Neither of those seems like a valid solution.

Is there a way to make it so you can login to Proboards using your FB login? That could cut out one step at least.

[BankOfMom]

This will definitely give us time to find alternatives to voting via a poll on the proboards forum.

[The Valeyard]

Thank you for the comments thus far.

As a quick note, if you notice my verbiage, I'm specifically speaking of giving universal voting rights only in Elections, not other polls.

I'm not sure how we could make membership easier. It's essentially "join the Facebook Group and you're in" sort of situation. How much further you want to get involved is really up to you.

And that's a good idea, Keely. I'm open to that change next regarding parents of endorsed members, so long (and I don't see this happening, but it should be considered as a distant possibility) as this isn't seen as an excuse to quickly get minors endorsed so that folks without endorsed costumes themselves can quickly corner the vote. Again, not something I see as happening here, but it is a distant possibility.

-Alex

[Keely Graesser]

I will admit that in some ways it's easier to make kid's costumes (they are't usually required to be *as* accurate) but it's also harder in other aspects like having to find rarer sizes and having to replace items often as they're outgrown

[coleenriver]

I like the proposed changes as they apply to officer elections.

As for making it easier for new members to get set up in everything, I don't know if it is possible to link Facebook and Forum. Maybe for now, just a new member post pinned on Facebook with a list of things that should be done 1-member of Order group 2-member of Sector Group 3-setup account on Forum 4- request addition to sector portion of Forum

[Keely Graesser]

Pinned post sounds like a great idea!

[smartpenguin78]

I am interested in the timing issue: Is the spread an attempt to allow local leadership to run for national office that same year? Otherwise, I tend to think, one singular period devoted to elections would be better. (I was actually going to propose that the current officers who just got elected locally stand for re-election in the Fall with the National officers.)

On the issue of voting, I am in favor of new members being in for a week prior to voting.

I will say though, I definitely disagree with the statement that it is "It's essentially "join the Facebook Group and you're in" sort of situation"
Joining the facebook doesn't give you access to the polls, remember this is specifically about voting.
I told many people about the Order, many of whom joined and have become very active, but the ones who didn't found the process off putting.

As Stephen mentioned, the process to actually be able to vote is:
1. Join the facebook group
2. Join the forum
3. wait until the forum request is activiated
4. Discover that there are sectors. (eliminate this step if someone told you about this previously)
5. Figure out WHERE you request to join a sector
6. Request to join a sector
7. Get approval
8. THEN you can vote. That is a lot of steps, and in some cases (like mine) there are multiple days between steps when you are unsure what has happened with your request.
9. There are also facebook groups for individual sectors, which adds to the complication. Again, I know I thought I had to join THERE to get forum access until it didn't happen.

I agree with Colleen that a pinned post with the steps is a "step" in the right direction.

[The Valeyard]

A pinned post is easy enough to do
The only problem with that at present is that pinned posts on Facebook are not visible on mobile devices...

The separation of elections is intentional. This is to prevent the two elections from interfering with each other and to prevent further politicking.

[smartpenguin78]

I feel like it doesn't prevent politicking at all, and that it wouldn't interfere. Just like with actual elections, people tend to be more invested in the one time to vote (if that much). I think the negatives of two times are much more significant.
But I don't care that much in the long run.

I am also in the camp that thinks that only "Endorsed" members should be able to vote. To me, it isn't about "barriers to entry" - it is about demonstrated commitment to the cosplay group.

[BankOfMom]

I would be fine with having one time for elections. That way, if you have someone moving out of regional leadership into national leadership, you won't have an empty spot in the middle of the term.

[awindowacrossall]

I like the original proposed ideas. Seems straightforward and easy enough.

[The Valeyard]

Thank you all kindly for the discussion. I am most grateful.

[The Valeyard]

Seeing as the majority of membership feels that this amendment, in its entirety, is no necessary, I withdraw it from the floor. I'll come up with something a little more concise.