[Lnc-business] Delegate Allocations

[Caryn Ann Harlos]

Ms. Mattson, I have a question - are you suggesting that I use the ROUND
instead of the ROUNDUP equation always in calculating the percentage of
total BSM?  I do have a checksum ran using a different formula to cross
reference the number of delegates earned per BSM two different ways to be
sure they zero out, and if one didn't - that would lead to an investigation
that would find if there were ever that rare rounding anomaly. Or perhaps
calculating out to five decimal places to make the rare even rarer?  I was
concerned about the arbitrary choice of decimal places which is what
prompted me to use the different formulas as checksums.

*In Liberty,*

* Personal Note:  I have what is commonly known as Asperger's Syndrome
(part of the autism spectrum).  This can affect inter-personal
communication skills in both personal and electronic arenas.  If anyone
found anything offensive or overly off-putting (or some other social faux
pas), please contact me privately and let me know. *



On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 6:48 PM Caryn Ann Harlos <caryn.ann.harlos at lp.org>
wrote:

> Thank you, I will take a look at that.  I want to be sure the spreadsheet
> formulas are exactly right since I intend for that spreadsheet to be passed
> along to be used in the future to cut down  on reinventions of the wheel
> and ensure greater accuracy.
>
> With the regional charts, I intend upon having multiple check sum
> calculations to avoid that "on the cusp" issue as I saw that risk which is
> part of the reason I decided to handle that tabulation separately.
>
> I truly appreciate your giving it a look-see.
>
> The report is also on LPedia at this point:
> https://lpedia.org/Document:National_Convention_2020_Notification_of_Delegate_Alllocations
>
> As that all had to be manually typed and eyes cross very easily, I do
> solicit a few eagle-eyed proof-readers to double-check that I transcribed
> correctly.  I would be shocked if I didn't transpose a few.
>
> *In Liberty,*
>
> * Personal Note:  I have what is commonly known as Asperger's Syndrome
> (part of the autism spectrum).  This can affect inter-personal
> communication skills in both personal and electronic arenas.  If anyone
> found anything offensive or overly off-putting (or some other social faux
> pas), please contact me privately and let me know. *
>
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 5:20 PM Alicia Mattson via Lnc-business <
> lnc-business at hq.lp.org> wrote:
>
>> Looking at the delegate allocations:
>>
>> 1) There appears to be a spreadsheet formula error in the New Hampshire
>> row, in the "Delegate Allocation % of Members" column.  It ought to be
>> 1.178%, but it is showing 1.200%.  I took a look at your source file, and
>> the other formulas in the column multiply by 100 before rounding to 3
>> digits, but that row rounds to three digits before multiplying by 100,
>> which is why the precision was lost on that row.  This didn't impact the
>> calculation of their delegate allocation, though, as it wasn't based on
>> that column.
>>
>> 2)  While the ROUNDUP() function is exactly what should be used for
>> calculating the "earned delegates" columns (because the bylaws say states
>> get credit for "fractions thereof"), the percent-of-total calculations
>> will
>> have better cumulative precision by instead using the ROUND() function.
>> Unless a division remainder is 0, the ROUNDUP() will always take that
>> final
>> decimal place to the next higher number, whereas the ROUND() function will
>> statistically take half of them higher and half of them lower.  As the
>> results of these roundings are cumulated into a sum, the effect of the
>> ROUND() function tends to nearly cancel itself out with more and more
>> numbers in the sum, but the ROUNDUP() function will push the sum higher
>> and
>> higher as more numbers are added to the sum.
>>
>> The cumulative effect of the always-round-up approach can be easily
>> demonstrated.  For the ROUNDUP() function, the sum of all the affiliate
>> percentages plus the percentage in "Other" comes out to be 100.025%, but
>> the same sum with the ROUND() function comes out to be 100.001, which is
>> much more precise.
>>
>> The difference doesn't impact the way the delegate allocations were
>> calculated, but if the same ROUNDUP() approach were to be used for
>> calculating region formation percentages, and a region adds up percentages
>> to verify that they hit the 10% target, it is more likely that a region
>> very, very close to the 10% threshold could think that they're over when
>> they're really slightly under.  It can still happen with ROUND(), but it
>> is
>> more likely to happen with ROUNDUP().  The regions will avoid the issue
>> completely by just adding the region's sustaining membership counts and
>> manually dividing by the total (minus the "other" category), rather than
>> adding up percentages which have (of necessity) been rounded.  And again,
>> it's only a risk with regions right on the border of 10% (or multiple
>> thereof).
>>
>> -Alicia
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 3:38 AM Caryn Ann Harlos via Lnc-business <
>> lnc-business at hq.lp.org> wrote:
>>
>> > Please see attached sent over the weekend to the affiliates.  Regionals,
>> > please make sure that your state chairs received.  I am not confident of
>> > the freshness of the state chairs emails available.  It has also been
>> > posted on the state chairs list.
>> >
>> > Mr. Hayes, please make available on the convention site.  It will also
>> be
>> > available (as well as any subsequent manuals) on lpedia. A Word copy
>> will
>> > be deposited in the central records repository developed by Mr. Fishman
>> and
>> > myself.
>> >
>> > For future secretaries, I have created a spreadsheet which will
>> > auto-calculate these items with several "check sum" backcheck features.
>> > You can view that document here:
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KyisBqMzDFhW-1WzbemyIZRCFwMK-lK7_lHtRGB-hvE
>> >
>> > I will be spending a good bit of the time between now and convention
>> > preparing training materials in the event that there is a new secretary
>> > elected next convention.
>> >
>> > *  In Liberty,*
>> > * Personal Note:  I have what is commonly known as Asperger's Syndrome
>> > (part of the autism spectrum).  This can affect inter-personal
>> > communication skills in both personal and electronic arenas.  If anyone
>> > found anything offensive or overly off-putting (or some other social
>> faux
>> > pas) in an actual email, please contact me privately and let me know.  *
>> >
>>
>