Nominations for the Board of Directors

Oct 30 14:15 UTC 1997

Nominations are now open for the Cyberspace Communications, Inc.
Board of Directors. In accordance with Article 4, Section d of the
Bylaws, nominations will close on November 15 and an online election
held December 1 through December 15. Terms of office begin on January
1, 1997, and are two years in length. Four seats are up for election
this time around.

Any current member of Grex who has paid at least 3 months' membership
dues is eligible to run for and serve on the Board unless they are
currently serving and are completing the second of two consecutive
terms. (People in the latter group are eligible to run again in
next year's election if they are still members at that time.)

The terms of three Board members have one more year to run: Steve
Gibbard (scg), Valerie Mates (valerie), and Jan Wolter (janc).

The four Board members whose terms end this December 31st are
Mark Conger (aruba), Dan Gryniewicz (dang), Scott Helmke (scott), 
and Misti Tucker (mta). They are all eligible to run for re-
election.

Use this item to make nominations. To see the current membership list,
type

       !members | more

at the next prompt. It is suggested that you check that a potential
nominee is eligible and is willing to serve before nominating them.

The Bylaws are posted in item 2 of this conference and enumerate the
duties of directors.

response 2 of 88:

Oct 31 12:42 UTC 1997

<whew>

response 8 of 88:

Nov 1 22:00 UTC 1997

Mark, 'scuse me if I'm just being dumb, but I don't happen to know you.  Are
you close enough to Ann Arbor to be able to attend board meetings?

response 10 of 88:

Nov 4 17:52 UTC 1997

I accept nomination.

response 12 of 88:

Nov 4 23:53 UTC 1997

 (Oh, right, we have to accept)

I accept nomination.

response 14 of 88:

Nov 5 17:58 UTC 1997

I could volunteer, right?  If so, I volunteer to run again.

response 16 of 88:

Nov 6 00:03 UTC 1997

Hmmm, odd.  I responded immediately when I got your message.  I wonder how
often my mail is getting lost.

response 18 of 88:

Nov 7 16:04 UTC 1997

I think that the membership of Grex should be the ones to decide
whether to infuse the Board with new blood.  I definitely do not think
that Richard Wallner should be making that decision.

response 20 of 88:

Nov 7 16:40 UTC 1997

Uh....if two withdrew, then there would be four candidates for four
positions, and there would be no need for an election. Is that how
you would like all elections held, Richard? No choices?

response 22 of 88:

Nov 7 22:00 UTC 1997

I should hope the elections are more than just a popularity contest.
People should be voting for those they think will do the best job of
operating grex.  That means selecting people who will do the right
thing, even in tough situations.  Most (if not all) of the people
nominated have been in fact active in coop and other places; it should
be easy for members to get some feeling for what these people are like,
as individuals.  It is also fair to ask these people how they would cope
with various situations, or where they would like to see Grex go.

For instance, when CDA reared its ugly head, there were some *very*
significant differences in the stances of various grex board members.
While no board member at the time *liked* CDA, there were some that were
willing to go to much further lengths involving grex to fight it, than
others.  Grex could have evolved in one of a number of radically
different ways, depending on how those differences got resolved.  If
there had been enough grex members who were in fact in *favour* of CDA,
grex might well have changed quite radically even before now.

There have also been at times disputes about whether grex should grow,
and how fast grex should grow.  Even reasonable people can reasonably
differ on this, and certainly, so far, grex has managed to grow quite a
bit.

There will be lots of issues coming up that board members will have to
decide.  While some of these are big issues the board should be bringing
to the membership, many other decisions, including the decision about
whether to solicit input from users, has to be made by the board members
using their own best judgment.  That means it's *important* to select
board members who will be competent to make the small decisions, and who
have the skills and experience necessary to work both with staff, to get
things done, and with the membership, to resolve the big issues.

response 24 of 88:

Nov 8 03:03 UTC 1997

Thank heaven that when I was elected, I didn't have to participate in
the swimsuit competition. :)