FRA elections 2009

The FRA constitution states that the governing body should have elections every two years.

Current term runs out on 31/03/2009 and elections are being called now.

Members from 2008 who have not yet applied for 2009 membership will be entitled to vote however you are encouraged to renew your membership ASAP.

Following a governing body meeting today it has decided to hold the new elections in two stages.

1st being for national officers

2nd for roboteer representatives(5 off)
Your governing body have decided to change from the regional representation to allow more than one person from a current region to nominate themselves and allow any candidates that have not suceeded in national elections to apply for a post of roboteer representative in a second round of elections.

Dates

Applications for the following posts of national officers to be sent in from now until 12 midnight 31/1/2009

President
Chairperson
Secretary

Election to take place by email commencing 7/02/2009 and closing midnight 13/02/2009.
Results to be posted on this forum within 7 days of the poll closing.

Applications for 5 off posts of roboteers representative will open from now until midnight 6/03/2009

Election to take place by email commencing 13/03/2009 and closing at midnight 20/03/2009
Results to be posted on this forum within 7 days of the poll closeing.

Notes.
1. A neutral returning officer will be appointed asap
2. You can nominate youself as long as you were a member in 2008
3.Any questions or job descriptions can be requested by personal email. For national officer posts we would strongly recommend this.
email andy@kane-whilton.co.uk
4.Further posts are available by co option after the election.
5.Your 2008 membership forms have an email address and it is this that will be used for your voting forms. If you have changed any details you need to contact the returning officer when appointed.

FRA governing body

[Ammended to clarify those applicable to vote]

(Message edited by kane on January 20, 2009)

Election nominations so far received.

President Geoff Smith
Chairperson Kane Aston
Secretary Karoline Pannell

Roboteers representatives

Leo Van Miert, Tim Bence, Trevor Wright.
(All current governing body members

Andy,

Is the requirement for You need to have been an FRA member for the 2008 year to be able to vote
in the constitution as I could not spot it.

Paul

Hi Paul,

If you look at point 4.7 of the constitution it states:
National officers shall be elected biannually by the FRA membership.

The point was made to ensure the vote was open to members who may not have yet joined for 2009.

During the meeting it was noted that most of the members from 2008 would not have re-joined by the voting deadline, and so they said all 2008 members (aswell as any new 2009 members) can vote. Atleast thats what i thought.

(Message edited by Grant_ploughbot on January 20, 2009)

Hi Kane, sorry but I may be being a bit slow here. It may help if I explain my position, Im currently not a member but was considering joining so that I could vote in the elections. Andys post suggests that in my case, I would not qualify as I was not a member in 2008. Grants take also appears to differ. A definitive statement would be appreciated.

(Message edited by m2xt on January 20, 2009)

Hi Paul,

You are quite right, the post is a little unclear. Members from both 2008 and 2009 will be entitled to vote. This is to ensure that any 2008 members who have not yet been given the opportunity to sign up at an event for 2009 are still entitled to vote.

Look forward to seeing you at events this year!

(Message edited by kane on January 20, 2009)

On the first of this month I stated that I would not be putting myself up for election, since that day I have had a significant number of roboteers, accross the community, say I should.

So I hereby announce that I will be standing for the position of chairman on the next FRA commitee.
My mission, should you choose to elect me, will be to achieve clarity, transparancy and even handedness in all FRA proceedures and put more control in the hands of the roboteers on the matters that effect them.

The present commitee should post the e-mail address you need to vote with on this thread.
The more roboteers that vote the more democratic the result, its up to you!

Mike, I commend you for your decision to stand and wish you and all the candidates good luck for the elections.

In regard to your point on voting, the current committee have been finalising the details of the elections including voting procedure; the details of this will be clarified very soon on the forum.

To answer the question now - Voting will be on the basis of FRA membership and details will be sent to the registered email addresses in line with the timelines Andy spelt out above

Tim

I shall not be running for chairman. I wanted to but after a chat with Kane Aston i just didnt realise how much work he actually did for the FRA. I will of course be running for a roboteers rep position which will suit me better. A voice is all i wanted and a rep has a voice as much as anyone.

Kane has been on the committee since day 1 i think and he knows more about the FRA and rules and the whole sport in general. He certainly impressed me with his knowledge. This is just my opinion and nothing against you Mike but i think Kane Aston should be made chairman without a democratic vote purly because he deserves the position after all the hard work he does behind the scenes. Also being the most unbiased person in the community.

So there you have it, The reasons i wont be going for chairman. I hope whoever gets the chairmans job does a good job and has the vision to take the sport forward. I hope i am voted onto the committee as a roboteers rep because i will do my job to the best of my abiliy and will have my say.

Doesnt take a genius to see who i will vote for does it. Still, Mike if you get the chair then well done i hope you do well. If you dont get it then i would like to think you would do the same as me and run for roboteers rep and still have your voice.