Arch Reactor holds annual elections for the board around this time. Like most things in life right now, we are in need of making some adjustments. The board, along with several active members' input, have unanimously decided there is not a practical way to hold elections as they are traditionally conducted this year. As those of you who attended the virtual business meeting tonight already know, we have put in a lot of work to come up with a process that will allow us to hold elections online this year in a practical fashion. We do take our commitment to our bylaws seriously. However, we feel this is the best option and it is better than not holding elections or asking our members to do multiple votes over an extended timeframe and managing that process.
The 2021 election process will move forward as documented below:
Nominations for Board Positions
Nomination's start tonight and run until January 18th.
Submit nominations using the following Google Form:
Current nominees can be viewed from this spreadsheet:
Given the unique situation of this year's elections, the decision has been made to suspend the nomination of members to multiple positions for this election. It is simply not logistically or technically feasible to do so and still conduct an efficient and timely election online. Members may only be nominated for a single board position.
If you have been nominated, but wish to decline the nomination, email the current board and we'll strike-through your name from the list. Your name will remain on the list during the nomination period, so others who may nominate you can see that it has been declined and will not nominate you again.
Those who have been nominated will be contacted by a board member to confirm they are aware and accept the nominated.
Candidate Debates
Debates will occur online on January 19th.
Candidates will be presenting through a Jisti video conference, much in the same manner that it occurs during business meetings.
If you are a nominee, and you are unable to participate in the virtual debates, please contact either the President or Vice President so we can make accommodations.
If there are technical reasons that a candidate cannot participate in the Jitsi conference, then accommodations will be made to get the candidate access to the conference, arrange a voice call, or rely text messages if absolutely necessary.
Rather than stressing the capabilities of Jitsi by having everyone join a single video conference, the debates will be live streamed on Youtube.
This will allow for more people to view the debate simultaneously.
It will also provide a separate chat for the membership to discuss among themselves and ask questions of the candidates.
You may also email questions to the President or Vice President in advance, if you are unable to watch the live event, but would still like to try and have a question answered. There is no guarantee that time will permit every question to be answered.
The candidates themselves will be on their honor to not participate in the Youtube live stream while the debates are taking place
The video to the Youtube stream will also be recorded for later viewing, and made available to the voting membership.
Links to the recorded debate will be included in all subsequent communications regarding the election.
Derek will moderate the debates, as he has declared he will not be running for the board this year and the duties fall within the purview of the role of president.
Joe, as Vice President, will handle production of the debates, managing the audio, video stream, and monitoring the chat for questions.
As usual, debates will consist of:
Each candidate takes up to 5 minutes to make a campaign statement towards the position they have been nominated for.
This will be followed by each candidate taking up to 5 minutes to answer various questions from the membership.
As the debates are being held online, and predate the election, the private discussion time among voting members does not need to immediately follow. Though it is permitted to occur in the chat.
Derek and Joe will conduct technical rehearsal for the debates on January 13th. Members and nominees are welcome to participate, but it is not required. We will be simply working out technical issues that may arise during the debates.
Election Voting
Voting will open the very next day, January 20th, and run through January 31st.
This year voting will be conducted online. We will be making use of Opavote
Opavote is an online election platform designed for organizations like ours.
Of the various options that were reviewed, it is the simplest, cleanest, and cheapest solution that meets our immediate needs.
Every voting member will be emailed a unique link to cast their vote. Please confirm that your email address on file is current.
Voting will still remain anonymous. The platform does not allow us to correlate the unique URL links to individuals.
Reminder emails will be automatically sent out every 3 days during the election period to ensure we reach the widest number of voters possible.
If for technical reasons you are unable to cast your vote with the platform, contact the current board for assistance or for accommodations to be made.
Election Results
Elected winners will be notified February 1st.
February 2nd will be the General Business meeting.
Will include the transition of the 2020 Board to the 2021 Board.
Election results and data will be made available to the membership.
