Elections are Coming!

Hey everyone!  I have wonderful news for you all – the very first Minnesota Furs election is a GO!  Here is the quick skinny on the details, with more below the fold.

• The Annual Membership Meeting and main election will be March 29th at Perkins, replacing the regular Furmeet.
• An Early election will be held at Kokomo’s in the Mall of America on March 22nd, from roughly 1-7pm.
• Absentee ballots are available, email secretary@mnfurs.org for details.
• Candidacy is open until February 28th.
• New subforum for candidates to respond to member questions.

You heard it right, everyone.  The very first board elections are coming up!  I’ll start off with a bit of background information, and go from there.

In October 2012, Minnesota Furs became a nonprofit organization.  This means that, among other things, they are required by law to have a board of directors that ‘oversees’ the group.  The law leaves it up to the founders of the organization to determine how to select future board members.  This could be anything from the head of the board selecting all new board members to whomever wins at a game of 52 pickup! For Minnesota Furs, we decided we would make being part of the board something that you could be elected to from the community.  There are five directors, as per our bylaws, and in even numbered years such as this one, two board directors have their seats up for elections.  In odd years, three have their seats up.

By law an organization must have a yearly membership meeting, and for Minnesota Furs it was decided that would be the time to vote for new directors.  For various reasons the month was picked as March, and in 2014 this worked out well with the last furmeet of March falling on the 29th.  At this time members of the community with 20 or more hours of volunteering recorded will be able to vote for new directors.  It is also when the board will let the community know of upcoming changes and big events of the last year, for those that might not have been aware.  It’s very important to attend this meet, if you can, so definitely talk with your friends and mark your calendars!

For those that can’t make the annual member’s meeting there will be two other chances to learn this information and vote.  There will be an early voting period one week prior to the annual membership meeting at Kokomo’s in the Mall of America, from 1pm until 7pm/close.  The election officials will be there, and a board representative will also be available to answer any questions you may have.  If you can’t make either of those meetings and are an eligible voter, you may cast an absentee ballot.  This must be done in the week between the early voting period and the annual membership meeting.  To request an absentee ballot and method for its recording, please email secretary@mnfurs.org and ask for assistance.

Some of you will wonder how someone can be determined eligible to run for the board.  The process is very simple and only requires two steps:  First, you must have a recorded 20 volunteer hours since the previous election, and you must submit your name and intent to run to the board’s secretary at secretary@mnfurs.org.  It’s really that simple!  However, the candidacy period is rapidly closing – no candidacy applications will be permitted after February 28th, 30 days before the election.  This is to allow candidates time to campaign and members to get to know the candidates before the vote. As part of this, all members eligible to vote, and those within 4 hours of eligibility, will be notified by the candidacy cutoff date.  We will be working to get it out sooner though!

There is also a new subforum at https://www.mnfurs.org/forums/forum/mnfurs-forums/ask-candidates/ for posting questions to candidates.  There, they can answer and you can get to know them and their positions better!  Right now we have four candidates for the board, with Legonnare running to maintain his position and three newcomers, Drake, Yarrick, and Zepaw.

The head of the elections committee will be at the furmeet this Saturday, January 18th and available to answer any questions or concerns you may have about the election.  If you desire more in-depth reading, the organization’s operational documents page holds the formal election guidelines drafted for the running of Minnesota Fur’s elections.

We’re excited and looking forward to a great first election!  No group like ours has ever done anything like this before, so let’s all make great history together!