On 2011-Mar-24 16:11:34 +1030, Adam Jenkins <adam.jenk...@gmail.com> wrote: >The problem isn't so much with how it is run currently, but that the >current model means that the election is run entirely by the previous >committee or people from the previous committee: including accepting >nominations, managing the count, and handling the results.
This is of concern to me as well. > Ideally, >people who are running for a position shouldn't also be managing the >election process, yet at the moment that's how things are set up. Agreed. Given that WMAu now has significant assets, it's even more important that the electoral processes are seen to be independent of the management committee. >There are good reasons for doing things the way we have, and as a >small organisation with limited funding this wasn't a major concern, >but for the long term it would be nice to rethink this - especially as >WMAU changes and our responsibilities grow. Even as a small organisation, there's no real reason why an official Returning Officer couldn't be appointed. And WMAu is still a fairly small organisation in membership. > Changing how we manage >elections wouldn't be difficult or expensive, and I think it would put >us in a better position, so it seems worth getting it right now and >then not having to worry about this issue again. I've served on the board of a similar type of organisation in the past. Like WM-Au, it had a relatively small membership base but was relatively asset-rich. Elections were under the control of the Returning Officer but he was free to call on volunteers to help with counting. Given that WM-Au relies on electronic distribution of notices and electronic voting, there is very little that a Returning Officer would need to do other than be independent of the committee, drive the voting software and count votes at meetings. I don't see that there is any reason to get an outside organisation to run elections - if nothing else, this would be likely to be a significant cost. -- Peter Jeremy
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