The National Capital FreeNet

AGM COMMITTEE

AGM STATUS REPORT

 

 

Prepared by: Chris Cope (bz787)

February 15, 2002

 

This report provides information about activities of the AGM Committee and the current status the 2002 National Capital FreeNet Annual General Meeting

 

Members of the Committee:    Chris Cope (bz787)                 AGM Chair

Gary Eikenberry (aa353)        Director in charge of proxies 

Ian Allen (aa610)                    Returning Officer

                                                Mark Mielke (al278)               Voting system software

                                                André Dalle (al178)                Voting system administration

Jim Elder (aa456)                   AGM web page & software configuration

 

1.          Voting Software & Readiness:  The NCF online voting software has been installed and tested on a separate NCF server and is judged ready-to-go for the start of voting on February 26th at 8am. Following the close of nominations on February 19, 2002, the candidate names will be added and links created to candidate information areas.

 

This year, the order of names on the ballot (which is computer-generated) will be random for each ballot.

 

2.          Nominations: Nominations close at 11:59 PM on February 19th. As at the time of writing, no nominations have been made, although some 9 prospective candidates have contacted the Nominating Committee for information and/or expressing an interest in running for the Board.  The Chair of the Nominating Committee will prepare a separate report containing its recommendations.

 

3.          Motions from the Floor:  One motion has been proposed by members William Watt (ag384) and Geoff Gigg (di874) concerning the maximum size of a member's webpage.  The Secretary has prepared 3 additional motions:

(i)         Motion A - Remuneration of Agents, Contractors, and Employees

(ii)       Motion B - Appointment of Auditors

(iii)     Motion C - Rules and Regulations

 

The Board at its regularly scheduled meeting on February 19, 2002 will review all 4 motions and receive staff recommendations (if any).

 

4.          Ordering of Candidate Names:  Many people have commented that people seem to read candidate material in the order that it is posted and thus there may be some advantage to being first in the list. It was suggested that candidate names be ordered by luck of a draw. For many years the AGM Chair has adopted this suggestion, and the procedure is described below.

 

The sequence is determined at the Board meeting prior to the AGM. Since the candidate names are not known at that time, 15 squares of paper are drawn from a hat, each with a number written on it from 1 to 15. The numbers are used to order the names as illustrated by the following example. Assume the numbers are drawn in this order: 5, 3, 10, 6, 13, 15, 9, 11, 1, 14, 2, 7, 12, 4, 8. The numbers are used to order candidate names as follows: The fifth (because the first number drawn was 5) by alphabetical (surname) sequence will be first, the third (because the second number drawn was 3) by alphabetical sequence will be second, the tenth by alphabetical sequence will be third, etc (skipping any number than exceeds the number of candidates). If there are more than 15 candidates, the candidates will be divided into groups of 15 (alphabetically by surname) and the method above will be applied to each group independently (thus the second group of 15 will appear in positions 16 to 32, etc).

 

As noted earlier, the order of names on the ballot itself will be random for each ballot.

 

5.          AGM Newsgroups: The newsgroup 'ncf.agm2002.general' was created as an online place for NCF members to post thoughts on issues relating to this year's online AGM, and as a place to engage in discussion with candidates for the Board of Directors.

 

The moderated newsgroup 'ncf.agm2002.nominations' was created for members to nominate candidates for election to the Board of Directors. The moderator (NCF's Election Returning Officer) will verify the candidate, remove any confidential information and approve the posting. The posting must include the name of the nominated person, the name of the nominator, and the name of a seconder. Daytime phone numbers should also be provided for all these people (phone numbers do not need to be posted, they can be emailed to the AGM Chair). If the Returning Officer cannot contact the parties to confirm the authenticity of the nomination and the willingness of the nominee to stand, during the nomination period, the name will not be placed on the ballot.