Following nominations for the position of President I am pleased to announce we have two candidates for election.
The candidates are John Bell and Jenny Smith.
Please use this thread for any questions and answers prior to the election.
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Following nominations for the position of President I am pleased to announce we have two candidates for election.
The candidates are John Bell and Jenny Smith.
Please use this thread for any questions and answers prior to the election.
Can forum members vote?
Thats not fair, how can I chose between those two ? :)
When do votes need to be submitted by ?
Voting is open to all fully paid voting members. Please read the constitution for full details.
The election will be held by email ballot. The details of which will follow later in the month.
:(Quote:
Originally Posted by kane
Oh well, there's always next year
So, roboteers can vote?
Could both John and Jenny post what they believe they should be doing in their role as the President please? And also their previous experiences with similar positions.
Is the position still open for others?
The nominations closed on 31st August.
Hi Roboteers
Grant has asked two very good questions, one is very simply answered,: have I ever been the president of an organisation before? No but I've never felt the urge or the need to get involved at this level before. Thank you for the questions Grant, I intend to post a full reply this evening, I will expand on what I've said here & what I believe the President's role to be. I have been thinking about all of this since I put my name forward about a month ago.
quick question If I joined the FRA today would I get a vote?
No longer next to useless eh? :wink:
In all fairness the cut-off date for eligibility to vote is the same as the cut-off date for nominations. We had an exception earlier in the year whereby paid-up members in 2008 who had not yet signed up for 2009 were also eligible due to the fact that there had only been 1 event in 2009 up to the cut-off date and many had not had the opportunity to renew in 2009. Now at this late point of the year, only voting members who had paid their fee before the cut-off date of 31st August are eligible to vote.
Hi I'm John Bell head of Team Batter & owner of Dantomkia, which is a constant evolution of Thor points and flat moments. but what a hobby to have - Exhilarating, exciting and damn good fun!
I started playing with these big toys during series 3 and have never looked back, having also survived the 7 year itch. I've managed to avoid the politics for most of this time, despite it knocking at the door periodically. Finally this year I became a Roboteer Rep, the 1st meeting I attended showed me a new way of giving something back to my hobby, and a new doorway opened.
I answered one of Grant's questions this morning - No I have never held this type of position before, but does that matter? You will decide
The President is a figurehead but also should support and (where appropriate) guide the committee in the running of the FRA. The President should also actively look to promote, support and help to grow our hobby in order to keep it alive. If you study the list of committee members you will see that we have a very strong, diverse & independent-minded committee with just about every viewpoint covered.
I would like to see a unified community in the future: I know You can't please all the people all the time but this is a democracy and no matter who you are you have an influence just by exercising your right to vote.
We don't at the moment, have the TV series & money that goes with it, so without the Event Organisers we have nowhere to play, so any help we can give them is good.
My ultimate goal would be to one day see that 1 event where all machines, no matter what they are, can turn up to fight the preliiminary rounds in the battle to find the true UK Champion. What a Dream.
We are all equal and , if elected, the one thing that I can promise is that I will always stand up for that, I will always do my best for the community, I will give whatever I can when I can to continue & improve our hobby.
I believe I have answered the questions set so far, if you have any others let me know. although I can't guarantee any replies until tomorrow as I'm tag team support for Tiny Toon - I've got 8 days -Toonimator MUST live
i know this is kinda off topic, but can i just take this time to thank john for all his help on mythras, and for giving us that ESC from scorpian :)
another thank you to everyone who has helped me start up my life in robotics, there is no way i could have done it without the FRA, and also robotwars101.
a round of applause to: Dave Weston, Simon Windish, Jamie mcharg, John Bell, Shane Swan, Joey McConnegel, Pete Waller, Pete Collias, Ed Wallace and many, many more for all their help
back to the election? :roll: :uhoh:
thanks
jack
I would like to echo the thanks to John. I think that John would bring a great deal to the presidents role. I know full well that the progress of our team would be nothing like what it has been over the last year.
That said Jenny has also played a very important role of making the whole team feel very welcome and listening to whine and moan on occassions.
It really is a very difficult decision for me/us as there are two very capable candidates and to be honest it's a choice between the best and the best.
I would like to hear each of the candidates define quite clearly what they see as the duties of the president not just bullet points but what they intend to do. Things always work out different to what people plan but an indication of the time they have available to carry out the role would also be good. I am very clearly of the opinion that tv money would by its very nature be relatively short lived and not necessarily be a long term benefit to the sport and therefore lose interest when it's mentioned. My interest is in what people would do to help promote the sport from a grass roots level meaning there is a growth in the sport. Making it easier to work within schools, set up local clubs etc etc. and I would be very interested in hearing their opinions on how we help to promote this. Making the sport more accessible, even though the technology is not that hard for most of what we do I did find it VERY difficult to get up and running in the sport.
Andy
Good evening everyone,
Due to work commitments, I will be posting my statement to the membership, tomorrow evening.
Thank you in advance.
Jenny
I stand by my previous comments
Hi Andy
You say not just bullet points but they are a good way of allowing questions to develop and it saved me boring you all with a long winded address, I felt it was better to expand these points individually as we go.
You mentioned about tv money - the reason I brought it up is because this is where we came from & without the tv show in the beginning our hobby would probably never have reached the level it did, and obviously to have our machines on tv raises our profile. Nowadays our grass roots are really the live events, this is why one of my aims as President would be to contact all our Event Organisers, find out what they need, how the FRA can help them, what can be done to improve the smooth running of events. The President should support, advise & be active in looking for new ways to make everybody's lives easier, because without the EO's we have nowhere to go and in the current climate they are all struggling.
You also mentioned about schools & clubs - I know that John Findlay of RR already runs school programs where kids are taught the basic ideas & engineering to build robots. He has developed a robot kit that he believes he can market - hopefully this will help raise our profile. Now as you can see the grass roots work is already being done but it could always do with more support. I am quite convinced that all our EO's would be very grateful for more contact & support, which is something I would implement if elected.
You have also asked about time, what time would I be able to devoteto the duties of President. I believe I would have enough time, around my daytime job, to carry out what needs doing - I will put as much effort as is necessary to do the job to the best of my ability.
The president is there to help make things run smoother through advice and consultation, and with a strong committe behind this post I believe it can work, but this can only be done through talk - communication is paramount.
I hope this has clarified a few more points for you
John
Hi everyone,
Most of you know me, or have seen me at events, but for those who don€™t, my name is Jenny Smith.
I am captain of Team Torque. I have been involve in robotic combat, since series 5 of Robot Wars. Where I fought with a robot called Widows Revenge. After a short break I returned to the sport where I met up with my fellow team mate Karoline. Together we formed Team Pillow Torque, now Team Torque.
The question was asked if either myself or John had held a position like this before, my simple answer to this is no I haven€™t.
I am a qualified and accredited Karate instructor and I deal with groups of people of mixed ages on a regular basis. I have run my own business for some years, even my current job has me working with the public on a face to face basis. I have always held positions that involve dealing with both the public and businesses. I think the ability to liaise with people at all levels is a fundamental requirement of the role of President.
The role of President should be that of a respected figure-head and the public face of the Association.
The President should offer advice to, but not seek to influence the governing body. I believe that policy is a matter for the Governing Body, not the President.
To clarify, it is not a voting position and contrary to popular belief the President does not hold a veto over decisions of the Governing Body. Constitutionally their vote is only called upon if there is a tied vote of the Governing Body.
In addition the role should include that of a mediator, to aid in the resolution of conflict. The President should be an impartial and unbiased party.
The President should also work in conjunction with our International Liaison Officer in discussions with overseas organisations to promote the sport of robotic combat.
My personal aims are to see a united community. This is sadly something we do not currently have. How to achieve this? Through communication with all parties involved. That means the roboteers, the EOs and the Governing Body.
So there is no doubt, and for the prevention of rumour, I will disclose the following facts.
For a period of 6 weeks in 2007 and 7 weeks in 2008, I was employed by Roaming Robots for the purposes of their Haven Holiday Park tour, for which I was paid a daily fee plus expenses.
I have also been employed by RR to run their pay to drive facility at live events, for which I also received a fee.
I am the company secretary of Fighting Robots Ltd. For which I do not receive a fee.
I will be pleased to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you,
Jenny.
(pokes head in through door and takes a look around)
It's quiet in here - is everyone THAT content? :)
no watching footy
and i will flick a coin :(
Footy's over now
Are Jenny & I that bad a choice that you have to toss a coin?
Sorry about that ......... Can I have heads please?
Pretty please with Bells on :D
John
ok when do we have to vote by ?
I'm deliberating over the candidates and thinking up some semi-intelligent questions for the pair of them, but I can assure you I will be getting involved
Kane and I are planning to call the election in another week. It will give people time to think up all those intelligent questions they are just itching to ask ........ please :crazy:
Thinking of good questions to ask the nominees seems harder than I thought, so how about these for topic openers.
In your opinion,
1/ What should the FRA be doing that it is not, and what if anything should it stop doing, and why?
2/ As an ordinary member of the FRA what should we the membership do, to help the FRA executive and the sport/hobby?
3/ What future do you realistically see for the sport/hobby, changes are going to happen, what changes do you see, and how will they be managed by the FRA executive?
I know you may have answered some of these in earlier posts but you might want to expand the answers or add comments.
Many thanks
Craig
Sounds like a good set of questions to start with, I will be adding some of my own before long but these will do in the meantime.
I do have one question: where do I send the vote to ?
Hi Craig,
Thank you for you questions. Due to work commitments I will answer them a little later. Please do not think they are being ignored.
Yours,
jenny
Many thanks Jenny
Craig :D
Any reply yet Jenny?..
Why has this all gone stale???? whats going on.....can we have an update or something please. Its dragging on and i am getting bored of it all.
Due to request of both candidates the election is temporally postponed.
why?
did I win ?
Well nobody else is in the arena right now... :)Quote:
Originally Posted by gravity
@ craig
i think that they have wok commitments that they ahve to do first, and so the can answer some more questions:)
we ever going to get one......
A bit astonished to see what members of team Torque have felt neccessary now to do. At least now the subject can be discussed, and you all have an explaination to why the presidential elections have been held up. Thank you all for your paitence.
So whats the situation now? Does voting just open again? Does jenny get stripped of the right to be president? do nominations open again?
I know what I would like to see happen, John Bell and Shane Swan go for president and see who wins the votes. The FRA needs a Doer this time! In all the years Geoff/jenny have been involved I havnt seen anything positive come from them, only from Andy Kane - Its time to wipe the slate clean and get some real motivation back into the FRA and move things forward again!
Guys and gals,
Please wait until the 23rd, this issue will be resolved soon afterward. If ones wants to voice their discontent, fine, PM or email us, we are not that hard to find.
by us Leo I assume you mean the Governing body? I have some things I would like to raise but I shall do so privately