[Eg-oversight-board] Election process, officer elections, and executive sessions
Andrea Buntz Neiman
aneiman at kent.lib.md.us
Wed Mar 23 15:04:34 EDT 2016
Oh, I'm sorry if I missed that somewhere -- I was mostly looking at
discussions from last year about that, not recently.
Thanks for clarifying Chris!
A.
On 3/23/2016 2:59 PM, Chris Sharp wrote:
> Andrea,
>
> Thank you for thinking of me here. I'm actually planning to end my
> term on the EOB next month as scheduled. Aside from the problem of
> finding four candidates, I don't see it as a problem to leave things
> as they are.
>
> Just my two cents.
>
> Chris
>
> On Wed, Mar 23, 2016 at 2:23 PM, Andrea Buntz Neiman
> <aneiman at kent.lib.md.us <mailto:aneiman at kent.lib.md.us>> wrote:
>
> Remarks inline.
>
>> I'd like to suggest something a little more structured, such as:
>> Election processes should begin 6 weeks prior to the annual
>> conference or April 1st, whichever comes first.
>> Nominations and voter registration shall be managed in weeks 1-3.
>> Week 4 shall be set aside for voting and Weeks five and six shall
>> be for new member notification and officer elections.
>> Newly elected officers will take office at the end of the
>> Evergreen Conference for that calendar year. If no Evergreen
>> Conference is held during a calendar year, office terms will
>> begin and end at midnight EDT on April 30.
>
> I'm fine with this general outline, though given the occasional
> cat-herding-like-ness of the group it may be better to have a full
> month for nominations & voter registration.
>
>> Does anyone have any thoughts positive or negative on election of
>> officers prior to the conference? If no objections, do you have
>> thoughts on how we should structure voting for the chair,
>> vice-chair, secretary, and representative? I would assume we
>> would nominate and vote on each position separately. Maybe take
>> nominations for Chair Monday am, vote Monday pm - take
>> nominations for Vice-Chair Tuesday am, vote Tuesday pm, and so
>> on? That would allow someone who ran for a position to run for
>> another position if they weren't elected to the first. Or we
>> could do all nominations and then handle it via STV
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote>, RCV, or
>> Approval voting. Thoughts?
>
> I'm in favor of electing officers on this day-by-day basis. Like
> Ruth pointed out, since this is outside of the scheduled EOB
> meeting the days/times/process of nominations and voting should be
> very explicit.
>
> In the past we've always voted for officers openly, this would be
> my preference going forward (as opposed to secret ballot) though
> of course I'm rotating off, so I'll defer more to those Board
> Members who are continuing.
>
>> I would also like to toss out a few ideas that I'd like to hear
>> feedback on.
>>
>> How do you all feel about a proposal that members newly elected
>> to the EOB (e.g. in their first ever EOB term) may not be
>> nominated to core roles of Chair, Vice-chair, Secretary, or
>> Conservancy Representative? They can, however, be nominated to
>> serve as committee chairs.
>
> +1 to this. Worth spending a year figuring things out.
>
>> Also, the Board has been called upon to appoint several new
>> members when elected members have resigned. Personally, I find
>> the Board appointment process to be an issue as it has the
>> potential to change the dynamic of our elected board. Would
>> there be any interest in proposing a change to the rules of
>> governance to require special elections when a Board member
>> leaves with more than 6 months left in their term?
>>
>> This would require some additional language around the structure
>> and terms of special elections, but I wanted to see if the idea
>> was compelling before writing further language.
>
> +1 to this as well. We've been fortunate to have willing & able
> members step up to fill vacancies but in the interest of
> representation I agree that calling for special elections is
> better for vacancies of 6+ months.
>
>> Lastly, I do think we need to add some language to the Rules of
>> Governance about how to manage the occasional executive session.
>
> Yes, definitely. I recommend that this language include the
> following: the general reason for going into executive session
> (to discuss an issue with counsel, to discuss an issue of a
> sensitive nature, to discuss a Board Member's Code of Conduct
> violation, etc.) , the names of Board Members who voted in
> approval of having an executive session, and the date/time of the
> session. I think it's also worth stressing that in the name of
> openness, Executive Session will only be used in rare and
> extenuating circumstances.
>
>
> There's one additional elections-related issue: The cohorts have
> become wonky.
>
> Chris was appointed to fill Shauna's vacancy, and she would have
> been rotating off this year with Yamil, Chauncey, and myself as
> the last 4-person cohort (3/2014 is when the Board voted to reduce
> to 9 members and our cohort was elected in 2013).
>
> However, there was discussion here
> http://evergreen-ils.org/meetings/evergreen/2015/evergreen.2015-01-15-14.01.log.html#l-81
> about grouping Chris in the cohort with Grace and Ben (rotating
> off in 2017) but I'm not finding where/if that was officially
> voted on.
>
> Amy was appointed for the rest of Ben's term here
> http://evergreen-ils.org/meetings/evergreen/2016/evergreen.2016-01-21-14.00.log.html#l-372
>
> But governance page has Amy listed as rotating off in 2016 as
> well, which must be an error; furthermore, within the EOB Rules of
> Governance, Ben is still listed instead of Amy.
>
> Election communications have gone out with the language of "four
> board vacancies" though, so, I'm not sure how to address this --
> do we want to have a quick email vote to confirm that Chris is
> part of the Grace/Amy (Ben) cohort, and issue a correction to the
> community about open spots? Or do we allow the cohorts to remain
> wonkified? Or a third way?
>
> I realize this is a little ticky-tacky but I think since we're
> hammering out a lot of other details about elections, now would be
> the time to straighten this out too.
>
>
> Andrea
>
>
>
>
> Andrea Buntz Neiman, MLS
> Librarian II, Public Services
> Kent County Public Library
> 408 High Street
> Chestertown, MD 21620
> 410-778-3636 x2115 <tel:410-778-3636%20x2115>
> www.kentcountylibrary.org <http://www.kentcountylibrary.org>
>
> On 3/21/2016 2:01 PM, Grace Dunbar wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I promised to send out an email regarding EOB elections.
>> For starters, I want to provide a quick review of the voting process.
>> We are currently accepting nominations for the Board. The
>> deadline is this Friday.
>> Like in years past, folks have to register to vote. The deadline
>> for registration is this Friday and the link to the registration
>> form is here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/EOB2016 . That list
>> will capture the email addresses we need to send the link to the
>> election on OpaVote.
>>
>> This year, as it was last year, voting process is approval style
>> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approval_voting). You should vote
>> for the four candidates that you feel will best represent the
>> community and the project's interests.
>>
>> Last month I sent out an email that proposed we adopt an election
>> timeline that is something that has a little more specificity
>> than can be used year-to-year. Right now the wording is, "Each
>> year, the Board shall promulgate procedures for nominating and
>> electing new Board members." (2.4d)
>>
>> I'd like to suggest something a little more structured, such as:
>> Election processes should begin 6 weeks prior to the annual
>> conference or April 1st, whichever comes first.
>> Nominations and voter registration shall be managed in weeks 1-3.
>> Week 4 shall be set aside for voting and Weeks five and six shall
>> be for new member notification and officer elections.
>> Newly elected officers will take office at the end of the
>> Evergreen Conference for that calendar year. If no Evergreen
>> Conference is held during a calendar year, office terms will
>> begin and end at midnight EDT on April 30.
>>
>> Does anyone have any thoughts positive or negative on election of
>> officers prior to the conference? If no objections, do you have
>> thoughts on how we should structure voting for the chair,
>> vice-chair, secretary, and representative? I would assume we
>> would nominate and vote on each position separately. Maybe take
>> nominations for Chair Monday am, vote Monday pm - take
>> nominations for Vice-Chair Tuesday am, vote Tuesday pm, and so
>> on? That would allow someone who ran for a position to run for
>> another position if they weren't elected to the first. Or we
>> could do all nominations and then handle it via STV
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote>, RCV, or
>> Approval voting. Thoughts?
>>
>> I would also like to toss out a few ideas that I'd like to hear
>> feedback on.
>>
>> How do you all feel about a proposal that members newly elected
>> to the EOB (e.g. in their first ever EOB term) may not be
>> nominated to core roles of Chair, Vice-chair, Secretary, or
>> Conservancy Representative? They can, however, be nominated to
>> serve as committee chairs.
>>
>> Also, the Board has been called upon to appoint several new
>> members when elected members have resigned. Personally, I find
>> the Board appointment process to be an issue as it has the
>> potential to change the dynamic of our elected board. Would
>> there be any interest in proposing a change to the rules of
>> governance to require special elections when a Board member
>> leaves with more than 6 months left in their term?
>>
>> This would require some additional language around the structure
>> and terms of special elections, but I wanted to see if the idea
>> was compelling before writing further language.
>>
>> Lastly, I do think we need to add some language to the Rules of
>> Governance about how to manage the occasional executive session.
>>
>> I know I've tossed out a lot of ideas; I'd love to hear your
>> thoughts on any and all of them.
>>
>> Cheers!
>> Grace
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Grace Dunbar, Vice President
>> Equinox - Open Your Library
>> gdunbar at esilibrary.com <mailto:gdunbar at esilibrary.com>
>> 1-877-OPEN-ILS | www.esilibrary.com <http://www.esilibrary.com>
>>
>>
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>
>
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