Thank you to Brian for responding as well as everybody else who was joined in on the discussion.
You have all reasoned some valid points/issues. I think by posting this it has uncovered some more inherent issues that should be addressed/considered by the U2UG in coming months. I starting writing the below linked "Open Letter" 9 hours after receiving notification of these elections (not bad considering the wide timezone ranges). Understanding that a wide audience wouldn't see it just on my blog, I posted it solely on the mailing list to see 1) how much interest people had in the U2UG elections and 2) How many people would actually see it on what appears to be the main communication channel for U2. Sadly, there would seem to be 2 possible take-aways from this exercise: - The elections would appear to be a token (albeit well-meant) gesture as there is hardly enough time to have meaningful discussions since we haven't seen a single response from any of the candidates at this stage. Or - Maybe the mailing listing is not the 'wide' communication channel it has been touted as; assuming the candidates would want to respond, I can only assume they haven't noticed my questions yet. Now, I don't have a fanciful enough imagination to assume a large portion of the community would be interested in reading my post about the election, but given the numbers from Brian (roughly 3500 members of U2UG), it would seem from the paltry 43 hits (roughly 1.2%, including 4 from subscription channels) that communication via the mailing lists needs to be reconsidered as to its effectiveness. Susan makes a great point on her comment she posted on the post: "...that number one criteria for a board member is willingness to serve. Not just willingness to run for the office, but willingness to make showing up to those every-other-week one hour meetings a priority." While I in no way discount the effort they have/will/are putting in, maybe something to consider for future elections is that the nominees themselves have to start a discussion around why they are nominating for the position. At least this we way we have a demonstration up front that it isn't just a nomination because it is easy to nominate, but they are prepared to make it a priority as well as give us an idea of their intentions. If the public profile of the nominees is higher, wouldn't it stand to reason that community engagement would also be higher? There is still a few hours to go, but my votes will have to stay as "Abstain" since if asked why I nominated one person over another, there is no way I could intelligently answer, hence my vote would be at best naïve. Regards, Dan -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dan McGrath Sent: Tuesday, 15 March 2011 9:13 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [U2] U2UG Elections 2010 - Request For Comment Hi all, I've posted an open letter regarding the U2UG elections to the nominees. I'd love to see more dialogue around these elections as I feel I don't really know what I'm voting for when I place my votes. http://u2tech.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/u2ug-elections-2011/ Along with this, I also wonder how many people on this list are members of the U2UG and how many actually vote? I've never seen any numbers. I know I'm one of two out of the roughly 20 U2 people at my work who know of the U2UG and am the only member. Not the greatest odds. On the positive side, it leaves a lot of room to expand. :) Regards, Dan _______________________________________________ U2-Users mailing list [email protected] http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________ ########################################################################################### The information transmitted in this message and attachments (if any) is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed. The message may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of or taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. The intended recipient of this e-mail may only use, reproduce, disclose or distribute the information contained in this e-mail and any attached files with the permission of IMB. ########################################################################################### _______________________________________________ U2-Users mailing list [email protected] http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
