[NCUC-DISCUSS] NCUC EC Elections - Voting Starts tomorrow 23 Nov 2015

[Tapani Tarvainen]

Hi Bill,

Without digging into email archives, my recollection is that in 2013 I
first made the voter list using 2-1-1 weights as per our bylaws, but
you decided to use 4-2-1 instead on grounds of consistency with NCSG
and precedent (apparently it had been done that way previously), so I
redid the list that way, Chair being in charge of elections it was
your call. I don't remember how extensively that was discussed
among the entire EC, but I do recall suggesting bylaws change
to align NCUC and NCSG weightings.

In 2014 I was not in the EC but I'm pretty sure 4-2-1 weighing was
used then as well. I seem to recall showing Maryam how to use the
script I wrote for the purpose; looking at it now I see it hasn't been
changed since December 2013, and it uses the 4-2-1 weighing (the code
for 2-1-1 alternative is present but commented out).

So, history and consistency with NCSG favours 4-2-1, bylaws say 2-1-1.

The bylaws also say that

"The Chair shall also: [...] Establish ballots for voting, for review
by the EC"

and

"The Executive Committee shall have the following duties: [...]
Approve all ballots for online elections"

So, over to you and NCUC EC. 

Technically changing the weights in the list is trivial (I think
Maryam could do it in about 15 seconds), if that's what you decide.
This is not a technical problem but a political decision.

Tapani

On Nov 23 12:56, William Drake (william.drake at uzh.ch) wrote:

> Hi Ed
> 
> > On Nov 23, 2015, at 12:10 AM, Edward Morris <egmorris1 at toast.net> wrote:
> > 
> >  
> > So rather than the 4-2-1 voting proportions used for NCSG  elections, NCUC elections are run using a 2-1-1 vote weighing system. In practical terms the NCUC Bylaws give more power to individual members, the NCSG Charter to large organisations. 
> >  
> > I do hope the tabulation software will be programmed to accurately reflect the NCUC Bylaws. We have several contested elections with some fine candidates and in fairness to them it would be good to use the vote weighing system contained in our Bylaws and not that of our SG.
> >  
> 
> This puzzled me so I checked with Glen and Maryam as well as the 2013 and 2014 final vote tallies I have saved on my computer.  As far as we can see, what we’ve done for some years now is follow the NCSG Charter's vote weighting rather than the NCUC Bylaws' weighting, which was defined prior the SG's formation. You were on the NCUC EC when we did this in the 2013 election and I don’t recall it being an issue.  There’s obviously an argument for having harmonization with the later and technically higher level model, no?  Why should we change direction at this point?
> 
> Unfortunately, Tapani (king of the data base) is off line today, so maybe we’ll hold off a day on sending out ballots until we can hear from him.  I’m about to get off a bouncy train in Zurich where I teach for four hours, and in any event have never touched the data base, so I’d rather make sure that our understanding fits with his.
> 
> Best
> 
> Bill
>