Frustration with DMS elections

DMS General
#1

I have been here for sometime now and the thing that I think, frankly, that is not right is the way committees are voting for chair. I believe that only people who are active in a committee should be voting in a committee,

Why are people who never step foot into a committee area, or who never teach a class, or never even use the equipment in a committee, why are they voting in that committee? Does this sound ridiculous to you? It happens all the time.

In my opinion, people who are active in a committee should be voting in the committee.

This is simple in theory but hard to define “active member” in practice.

I don’t know what the right answer is, but I think it can be very demoralizing to highly active people when this happens.

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[DUPLICATE] - Frustration with the Voting Process at DMS
#2

Perhaps because those same people are the ones paying for everything that committees buys/uses?

Golden rule: He who has the gold makes the rules.

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#3

I have never done anything in jewelry, I know nothing about what they do in jewelry, I don’t know the name of a single person in jewelry. Do you honestly think I can make a qualified decision on who should be running jewelry?

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#4

You have never run a city, state, or federal government, yet you get to vote on that as well. What matters is that those who are paying can choose to decide who gets to spend that money.

The committee election process at DMS has the fewest problems of our management system. What specifically about Kobins election do you object to?

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#5

Interesting since I know you and I have been at several Science committe meetings and classes

#6

Josh,

It used to be that only committee members could vote at committee meetings, then a previous Science chair started playing shenanigans by only allowing some of the committee members to vote. The BoD put a stop to that nonsense by making a ruling that any member could vote in any committee election.

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#7

I was there during that period, the science committee was the first one I took part in
It came close to driving me away for DMS

#8

The committee votes are non-binding anyway, the board is the only group that gets to appoint chairs. Committee voting is a straw poll to give the board an idea of the membership’s opinion.

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#9

I don’t agree with this analogy, the equivalent to what I am saying would be you and I voting for the mayor of San Francisco, even though we live in Dallas, and never set foot in SF, and have no interest in SF and couldn’t find SF on a map; or you and I voting for the President of Brazil even though we never set foot there, couldn’t find it on a map and have no interest whatsoever in the outcome.

I am talking about, people who are invested and caring about their committee voting in the committee.

Last week I was asked to vote in several elections for committees of which I have done nothing in.

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#10

I recall that this was less a rule and more a statement about the Science process at the time. Woodshop has some interesting language about voting members, which at one point meant committee voting members, bestowed after attendance at the last X meetings.

#11

Or even run for chair, I have yet to see the new chair since the election. :wink:

#12

The thing you’re missing in this analogy is that you don’t pay city taxes in San Francisco or federal taxes to Brazil. If you did, you would deserve a vote there too. Most of America has absolutely zero idea what goes on in the federal government and no idea who they are voting for, but they vote anyway.

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#13

I’m pretty sure the Finance Committee wouldn’t mind if random people showed up and elected a new Chair.

I think @Lampy would be beyond delighted to get a break. I think he’s been elected against his will twice now.

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#14

Josh that happens in the real world all the time, urban folks vote of push for laws that have negative
impacts on farmers, and rural areas vote for laws that us urbanites don t like

I attended blacksmithing committee meeting because I was interested in it and I wanted to eventually
get involved,

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#15

People ask me for things all the time. If it doesn’t make sense for me I say “No thank you” and move on. I’d recommend that here as a reasonably appropriate approach.

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#16

Josh some of those committees will effect you, Logistic\cs, Infrastructure,
classroom heck even PR will effect you and scicnec

#17

You are a smart and thoughtful guy, Josh, so I’ll suggest that before posting this (twice) you should have thought it through enough to at least have a suggestion as to what an answer might be or look like…

#18

Can I retitle this thread to: Frustration with DMS Chair Elections ?

Seems that people can be confused as to the annual BoD elections. It read that way for me the first time.

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#19

Personally I vote based on the person, not their knowledge of the committee. I vote for leaders who can adapt to any problems they can face. Not necessarily their ideas for the committee. As such I don’t see how voting for another committee that you are not active in is a bad thing, you’re voting for the person because you know them and trust them to do a good job, regardless of the role.

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#20

This is where I have personal issues casting votes here. Should I cast my vote, as you indicated, based on my personal feelings toward a person, i.e. do I like him/her, i.e. a popularity vote? Or should I cast my vote based on his/her ideas to move the committee forward in some way or particular direction, i.e. a platform or issues based vote? Often hard for me to decide.

Also, Happy Birthday!

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