[chapter-delegates] One Member One Vote

[James M Galvin]

--On Tuesday, March 15, 2005 1:19 PM -1100 Richard StClair 
<stclair at niue.nu> wrote:

> >> 1. One Member One Vote
> >
> > This is a difficult to achieve, even if we did not have individual
> > members.  Consider that individual members are permitted to join more
> > than one Chapter.  In fact, there is no limit to the number of
> > Chapters a member can join.  Thus, a member could, in principle, vote
> > in many Chapters.
>
> It should be up to chapters to determine their local members, and then
> forward them regularly by spreadsheet or some means to ISOC Hq. Simple.

ISOC used to do this.  Chapters used to be responsible for doing things 
just as you describe.  Unfortunately, it did not work out so well.

Voting systems need a set of checks and balances.  There needs to be a 
way to verify a voter and a vote in a way that is acceptable to every 
significant party with a vested interest in the outcome of the election.

The problem with what ISOC used to do (and what you are proposing) is the 
responsibility is entirely on the Chapter.  The member in the Chapter has 
no way to confirm their vote was either counted or even submitted.  ISOC 
has no way to confirm the Chapter actually has such a physical person.

Such a system allows an election to be easily biased.  A dishonest 
Chapter could "sign up" hundreds or thousands of new "members" and submit 
votes for each.

An election needs to ensure fairness.


> Then it's a simple matter to find a web interface (or some similar
> technology) to allow each one of them to vote.

Not everybody has access to the web.  Not everybody has access to email. 
Some people share email address and thus voting through such a mechanism 
is impractical.

FAXing can be expensive.

Postal voting can be slow.

The interface to vote is not simple.  ISOC has done all these (except the 
web interface) and even the combination of all of them has not been 
completely successful.


> There are probably
> chapters around with the skills and resources to donate such services
> whenever there needs to be a vote. It's not like it's gonna be needed
> every week. ;-)

I would be interested in a detailed proposal, drafted by Chapters, that 
Chapters would be willing to sign up to enforce and follow through on. 
ISOC has tried the various methods you propose, when we had far fewer 
members than we have now and all were paying members.  If we could get a 
commitment from all Chapters to make it work, I would be willing to try 
again.


Jim Galvin
VP Chapters and Individual Membership



> I think this concept that this is too hard to do, or it's too complex,
> or too expensive, is simply not correct.
>
> It IS a doable thing, and right now it is at the heart of the anger in
> the chapter community right now.
>
> It doesn't matter [at this point] how things were before. What matters
> now is that chapters want one vote per member....and that means all
> members not just the paying ones.
>
> Fix that, or you have a real problem on your hands that is not going to
> go away.
>
>
> >> 2. Every member has a Vote
> >
> > This is true today.
>
> Huh? I can't help but think this conflicts with your statement 1.