Questions Regarding The Board Election

[Ridayah]

It has come to the board's attention that some members of the community are confused as to how the initial board was elected.  As a part of the process I am here to answer questions and explain the way the board nomination process, the voting rights, and the election.  Hopefully at the end of this post the timeline of events will be clearer.

 

[Nomination]

The issue of the first board arose early during the creation of the MNFurs bylaws.  The first board would have a massive amount of work to do, and would be difficult in terms of work load and in how they would be elected.  It was decided to get feedback from the community as well as the Steering group as to the individuals they saw as capable of managing this task.  Over the course of about two months members of Steering and Drafting talked with community members at events about the first board.  

 

These thoughts and opinions on the first board – as well as those people felt not suitable to the task – were captured and sent to myself as the Steering group's secretary.  I maintained and compiled a tally of the individuals named.  After a while certain people emerged with significant community support.  They were approached about the possibility of being on the board and asked if they would accept or deny a nomination.  By this means five individuals with community support were found to be nominated to the first board.

 

That settles how “who” was nominated.  The next issue is the voting rights.

 

[Voting Rights]

The bylaws for Minnesota Furs use a volunteer model with 20 hours of volunteering per year to become a voting member.  We wanted to allow membership to vote on the first board but a problem presented itself:  We had no formally tracked volunteering hours nor any means to qualify anyone for volunteer hours at the time.  However, at its core volunteering means you got off your butt, took time out of your schedule, and did something to help others.  Several members of the community had been showing up at the Steering group's open meetings.  It was felt that coming to those meetings and contributing was much like volunteering and therefore they had the right to partake in the vote.

 

I know this raises a concern; that the election was not publicly announced in advance.  However, that was a decision that was made for a simple reason.  Telling others of an election invalidated the volunteering part, as they would show up and simply vote.  This is not how MNFurs in the future would run, nor how we wanted the first election to be.

 

[Election]

At the October 13th open Steering meeting several individuals arrived who were members of the general community aside from several members of the Steering group.  The nomination method was raised to the group as a whole and no one had objections to it.  The five individuals from the nomination were presented as a slate and the motion was made to accept those five as the first MNFurs board.  The issue of voting was raised and no one had any objections.  There was a period for open discussion and changes to the slate.  Some discussion occurred but after a vote, the slate of nominees was elected via unanimous decision.

 

There has been some confusion as to whether or not the nominees voted.  The nominees absented themselves from the vote due to a conflict of interest.  Therefore the only people voting were those at the meeting who weren't a part of the slate.

 

[Looking Forward]

Hopefully this explains and clears up any confusions that might have been had related to the creation of the MNFurs board.  If you still have questions there are three big ways to ask them.  The first is right here — I am making myself available to answer all the questions I can to clear up any misunderstandings.  The second way is to talk to the members of the board directly at meets as well as by email.  We want your input!  And lastly, we would welcome everyone to come early to the Perkins meet on November 10th where the board will hold its first Open Forum Meeting.  You'll be able to meet the board and have all of us there to alleviate any concerns you may have.

 

The board members can be reached at the following emails:  [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].

 

We look forward to hearing from you all!

 

And now that the long version is out of the way…

 

[TL;DR Version]

The board nominees were selected after talking to many members of the community and finding out who they supported, then picking those who came up most.  Everyone at the meeting was allowed to vote because they came to the meeting not expecting anything but to help and learn more, and that is just like volunteering.  The election included everyone at the meeting, but the nominees were excluded from voting because of conflict of interest.  Questions?  Concerns?  Post here, talk to and email the board members, and come to our big open meeting on November 10th!

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