March 2018 BurnT Election Results

This is Sherwin, the election officer for the March 2018 BurnT election.

There were 4 positions open. Initially, it was communicated that there were 2 positions open, but the most recent minutes posted and by-laws indicated that it should be 4 positions. Therefore, 4 positions it was.

We had 7 persons that were nominated:
Seth Hardy
Steph Santos
Dave McKay
Franklin Warhol Call
Magill Foote
Drake Burns
Martin Sneath

Seth Hardy and  Dave McKay were not accepted since they were prior board directors. My decision was based upon reviewing the board minutes ( http://burntoronto.ca/minutes ), there was a passed motion in the most recent minutes affirming that prior board directors could not hold any position of responsibility until reviews were completed.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i07EYKdru2c6hnWAasdyvzeyWmBlXoV5/view

The board reaffirmed its previous unanimous decision that none of the last board directors or officers should hold any position of responsibility, including leads at events, until a full financial review and review of the legalities and was concluded by the Board.

I couldn’t accept their nomination since they were a previous board director and those reviews are still in progress.

Steph Santos was not accepted since they were not a GTA individual. After reviewing the by-laws, http://burntoronto.ca/by-laws, the applicable one was the April 2014 by-laws.  Section 1.2 reads

The burnT OUT Interactive Arts Society shall be organized exclusively for charitable, artistic, and educational purposes, specifically to provide support and organizational structure to the community of Burning Man attendees and like­minded individuals (hereafter referred to as the Community) in the Greater Toronto Area.

I couldn’t accept their nomination since to provide support and organizational structure to the community in Greater Toronto Area, you’d have to be an individual in the Greater Toronto Area.  This was a difficult decision, and subsequent election officers can interpret this differently, I’d recommend that the board clarifies this prior to a future election.

These disqualifications were made by myself based on the effective by-laws and recent board decisions.  I’ve had feedback questioning why I followed the 2014 by-laws and board decisions, and my response is that they were the rules and guidelines in place provided to me by the board.  I ran an election using them, and it wasn’t my role to debate those rules and guidelines.  Persons are welcome to bring up issues with these rules and guidelines with the new board.

This left 4 nominees with 4 open positions. Martin Sneath and Magill Foote withdrew their names from consideration since they didn’t want a position by acclamation.

The new board members are:
Franklin Warhol Call
Drake Burns

There are still two open positions, that I assume the board will call another election to fill.  Due to the acclamation, there is not a need for a balloted vote.  The election is complete.

Now with the benefit of hindsight, here are my recommendations for subsequent elections:

• Email subscribers prior to posting an announcement on Facebook.
• Update administrative (minutes, by-laws, etc) aspects of the website prior to announcing the election.
• Make clear the number of positions open, and the various outcome scenarios. e.g an acclamation occurs if there aren’t enough nominees.
• The board should minimize interactions with nominees during the nomination period, or at least have a 3rd party present.
• Further clarify qualifications to run for a position, and to be a voter.

I hope the board and future election officers consider these for subsequent elections.

All the best.

thanks … sherwin