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.

The campaining appears to have started!
Dont forget guys there are five roboteer postitions up for grabs in the second round, I will be going for one if I dont make chairman.
Good luck to all.

:)

Hi all,

Id just like to post reference to the election rules that have been posted in the announcements section of the forum - link below

http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/discus/messages/8/14754.html?1233060896http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/disc...tml?1233060896

Also a reminder to anyone interested in standing for any of the national officer positions that nominations close at midnight on Saturday so you have only just over two days to get your nomination in!

Tim

http://www.teamstorm.com/frawww.teamstorm.com/fra
Intresting

Certainly puts in a good campaign. Better than any on here so far.

OMG! Makes me shudder with fear at the thought of it.

Well if I were still a member (and one of the key reasons I am not is Andy Kanes presidency) I would be voting for Ed. Best of luck

:rofl: Paul

In answer to one of your questions Karoline, I have not received that email.

Thank you Babeth. I know that you are included within a team membership but your email address is not the teams contact.

Please note:
Any negative campaigning on the forum will be removed by forum moderators

A moderator who is running for office should not be the one who moderates such things
I will be voting for RON (Reopen Nominations)

i think that such a website is a good thing it means all Eds policies or what ever are easy to see etc


i may not have been in the sport when all this trouble started but i will be voting for the person who wants to move foraward but only if i think these things will happen and not be forgotten
who are the current candidates for President or Chairman?

Thanks Alex

btw those hits stats sound promising for the sport

Alex, the nominations close tonight and candidates will be announced there-after.

thanks for your reply Kane

ED and i dont have the best history however i beleive the aims and goals are what the sport needs and should already have. He seems like the right sort of person to bring a new life and more active direction to the FRA. Do the other candidates have any action plans so we can be an educated lot before we vote?

The only question i have for ed is could he define what he means by we all get a vote on virtually all the stuff? I will ask him and post his reply on here so its clear for everyone.

At the moment Ed is banned from using the forum as a result of something that happened (I dont know what) in the past.
Having read his website I would (and have previously said to some degree) agree with his aims in general, the only note of caution I would add is that any changes or new proposals have to be voted in by the commitee so general agreement is needed there too.
This would , of course, include which items to put out to vote in the community.
For my part I would like to see combat and construction rule changes put to the roboteers, perhaps with options discussed by the commitee with provision for roboteers to chip in their own ideas.
Safety is always a big concern so I would like this to be debated and perhaps voted on in the wider community.
Transpency and openness are things I would push for and make annoncements in plenty of time for debate.

Its great to see so much interest in the future of the sport and the FRA. If any of the candidates wish to have a few minutes at our Whitwick event after the roboteers breifing (probably Sunday morning as we will have more time and roboteers), to stand up and say anything to the attending teams then they are more than welcome.

Hi Alan, as I will be attending Whitwick I am more than happy to hold an informal questions/answers/discussion meeting or speak with whoever is interested, throughout the weekend, Mike.

so to be clear here as a member of the fra in 2008 i will be able to vote for the people i want for the postions of

chairperson
president

???

does this get done by email? and is it a tick box thing or i write the name of the person

thanks alex

Alex,

as a member of the FRA in 2008 you are eligible to vote for each of the forthcoming election positions

Voting will be done by email which will be sent to all eligible email addresses as registered on your membership form. This will be on or around the 6th February and details of how to complete the vote will be included with this email

In response to Alans offer we wont be offering the same at Rebel Robots

Ive read Eds Policies and I cant help thinking theyre the right words (sort of) but the wrong person I think some of his policies could be implemented a lot quicker than in his timescale,

I think that Ed should be reinstated to the forum so that he can have his say, its pretty one sided if only Geoff can put his point across to the masses and Eds message is passed on by others who happened to get the email

The Role of the president should be a figurehead, to only cast a vote on tied agendas to hand out trophies, kiss babies and steer the FRA by their public profile,

Well its all depressing anyway. shame really.

Stu

To all FRA member teams.
--------------------------------------------------
The FRA has received a self nomination from Mr E Hoppitt to be entered in to our forthcoming elections for the office of president.

The FRA has rejected Mr Hoppitts application on the grounds that that it is not clear on whether Mr Hoppitt is an event organiser. According to our constitution event organisers are specifically excluded from holding an FRA governing body post.

Contrary to the premature issue of of Mr Hoppitts manifesto and in it a claim that it only takes three votes to create an FRA rule change or decision, we have taken the opportunity to publish the document and poll results of the FRA governing body on this matter.
--------------------------------------------------
To create or change anything in the FRA the constitution states that a quorum of 5 governing body members is needed. Temporary decisions can be made by the FRA executive then refferred to the whole governing body for their deliberations and decision at the earliest opportunity.

Results of the poll on the document below.

There are 8 possible governing member votes to be cast plus a casting vote from the existing President should there be a tie.

7 governing body members used their vote in the poll.

The result was 7-0 for the option 2 motion and for motion 3, 6 for and 1 against.

--------------------------------------------------
Dear All,
As you are aware Mr Hoppitt has thrown his hat into the ring for the office of president of the FRA.


Some of you have voiced your opinions in not allowing Mr hoppitt to stand.

Where we are today is.

Mr Hoppitt was expelled from the FRA as per your voting wish some time ago.

Mr Hoppitt is trying to organise an event this year.

In the past we have dealt with Mr Hoppitt as an event organiser.

We need as a body to decide on a course of action and would appreciate if you could for either of the options below and mail back your decisions to the governing body as a whole.


1, To allow Mr Hoppitt to stand for office with restricted in put to our forum.


2, To refuse Mr Hoppitts nomination as he contravenes our constitution as an event organiser. ( I am told written evidence can be supplied)



If your option is 2 could you answer item 3 with a for / against or no comment please?

3, Allow Mr Hoppitt the right of appeal to the new governing body when in office to regain full FRA privilages and to rerun the election for the presidents position subject to the new governing bodies wishes and a guarantee that Mr Hoppitt is no longer an event organiser.


It would be appreciated if you could reply ASAP as nominations close at midnight today.

I have included the two accepted nominees for FRA office in this mail so that they can start to see the processes that we have in place and so a background knowledge can be gained should the candidates win their election. The nominees are not allowed to vote on the questions above how ever if you have any questions please write to me. For the record the writer does not vote on the above unless a tie needs a casting vote.

Regards

Andy

--------------------------------------------------

The above document may lead to questions on the content, if you could hold off for a few hours our outgoing president will post personally and perhaps answer the potential questions.

Call me psychic cause I knew that would happen! Ed, dont take no for an answer. Youre the best chance the FRA has of surviving. Fight the machine!!!

Dave can i say my opinion as you have yours.

Ed isnt the best chance of the FRA surviving at all. The FRA has the best chance if everyone supported it no matter who is in the chair and who is president.

Can you explain why you knew that would happen?????

Cause I know how this committee deals with things

Tim Bence, Trevor wright, Karoline Pannell, Geoff Smith, Kane Aston, Leo Van Miert (i wont say Mr Kane because i know you dont like him) are all on the committee. Do you suggest they all deal with things in an unfair way and they as a committee did wrong?

sorry i forgot a couple....Tony Sommerfield...Steve Johnson...Mike Lambert...there are more but cant remember.

First of all I am speaking as a member roboteer only and not in my capacity of out going FRA president.

I will be pleased to have ended my 3 terms as FRA president. It will give me the freedom to speak freely as against being self gagged as a servant of the FRA governing body.

The new executive will also have this problem despite protestations of a new dawn when campaigning for your votes

I want to list one achievement, and that is we are still here and robot fighting.

One of the critisms of my tenure is communication with all members, hands up, guilty.( I put it down to my lack of the skills required, useing computors and the internet.)
This is another reason why I am going, the FRA needs someone in high office with the right skill set to correct this defficiency.

As the new presidents role is to change with the chairmans role becoming the real leader of the FRA and this makes this Chairmans election a very important one.

I believe the skill set required is,
1, To be personable.
2, To be able to converse in writing
3, To recognise potential safety problems and deal with them efficiently.
4,To be better than the average human at computor skills and the internet.
5, Try and be a good diplomat.
6, Recognising that they are a servant of the governing body.
--------------------------------------------------
To answer possible queries regarding the FRA post above

Mr Hoppitt was expelled from the FRA as per your voting wish some time ago

1, Mr Hoppitt for some reason known only to himself was found to be lying to the FRA governing body regarding the size of the FRA website he stated because he was hosting it free on our behalf and it was to big to be moved cost effectively.
( Thanks were expressed, the FRA was not ungrateful to Mr Hoppitt for setting up the site just could not understand why he seemed to be wanting a hold /power over the roboteers on this matter)
Furthermore Mr Hoppitt was a moderator of this forum and had been caught changing a post without the FRA executives knowledge but when it happened a second time and at the same time as investigations were being conducted on the website size the governing body deemed that Mr Hoppitt was abusing his position and removed him from post for lying to them and as a sanction removed posting rights on this forum, effectivly expelling him from the association.

When the forum was moved to this site it turned out to be half the size that Mr hoppitt was leading all to believe, and it cost us nothing more than we were already paying for the front part of this site.


2, Mr Hoppitt is trying to organise an event this year

I am informed that there is evidence to support the above statment until its seen, I cannot inform you whether its a true allegation or a false one.

3,In the past we have dealt with Mr Hoppitt as an event organiser

From a safety point of view one of the worst EOs if not the worst at not recognizing hazzards.

If I was to comment on Mr Hoppitts skill set it would be as follows
1, To be personable. (Not in his nature)
2, To be able to converse in writing (excellant)
3, To recognise potential safety problems and deal with them efficiently.( Would not recognise or understand a potental problem)
4,To be better than the average human at computor skills and the internet.(he can do this)
5, Try and be a good diplomat.(no chance)
6, Recognising that they are a servant of the governing body.(Would not rcognise this concept)

In essence I do not regard this gentleman as a fit and proper person to hold any office in the roboteers organisation.

point 1 being the main reason together with his little posts over another event organisers thread on the pretext of helping out, only to cause absolute mahem for the innocent organiser.

For once I am a voter in these elections and as a voter I am surprised at Mike Hamiltons-Macy endorsement of Mr Hoppitts campaign.
It smells like a start of a little club to me, I wonder who else in the club is going to appear next out of the woodwork.

I also understand that a couple of our members are also endorsing Mr Hoppitts campaign and would welcome them to post this forum, their view of this fine upstanding character that is Ed Hoppitt.

The name dropping of the RFL commissioner in his manifesto could lead folk thinking that Mr Hoppitt has an endorsement from David Calkins.
David Calkins would not interfear or endorse anybody or any thing in UK elections.

To the moderators- You are probably going to get a bit hot under with this post but I am willing to stand by any allegations I have made.

To my fellow members- I would recommend that you keep an eye on a potential little clique taking over your association on the pretence of bringing us all together, because I can assure you robot life under a minority view would not be great.

To the FRA governing body- It has been a pleasure to work with you all. The spread of views has always been there but when it matters in my opinion the correct decisions have been made for the good of our sport.
I have just two months to complete in office and would appreciate a reasonably quiet time similar to that we have had this last eighteen months which has been due to the lack of Mr Hoppitt trying to control your agenda with crap