[Lnc-business] Mail ballot

[liber8or at austin.rr.com]

I vote no.

The main reason is that certain issues have been raised asking for rulings from me - here they are:

Our bylaws allow for email ballots but do not allow other voting methods explicitly. I will not unilaterally rule that other methods are implicitly allowed because the nature of online voting is different enough to contradict the email method. All mail ballots are public, and known during the voting window, and online voting is private. I cannot reconcile these under the bylaws as written.

I also will not rule that elections must be or cannot be secret. That always has been a group decision that I think should be enshrined in the bylaws or policy manual.

Therefore, it is my position that this motion is out of order, but I am not clear if I have the authority under RNR to make an official ruling outside of a meeting.

I agree that our time is limited and should be optimized. Therefore, if this motion fails, I will call for our meeting to start at 8AM and incorporate a working lunch to maximize our time.

I still favor some form of non-binding private polling so that we can gently let some of the candidates know ahead of time that their chances are remote, but I see no way of avoiding the situation of candidates spending money in vain. It is up to the candidates to determine for themselves if the money and time involved is well spent.

Geoffrey Neale
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile