Skullspace AGM, video conference, proxies, and voting procedures

[Mark Jenkins]

Hey everybody,

A reminder that our AGM is tomorrow.

We need members to show up to help us make quorum.

My partner Sara will watch children in the classroom/dancehall and
we're bringing Lego and SnapCircuits. Meeting in the lounge.

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I'll run a simultaneous video conference of the boring stuff in the
lounge at the following Google Meet:
https://meet.google.com/gdj-guco-udd
Don't expect a high quality experience vs in-person.

It is also possible to follow that link for instructions for dialing
in by phone.

A large part of AGMs is reports by board members. I will mic up board
members who are giving reports with the wireless lapel and headset
that I have.

Cross talk will largely get missed, though I will also have the
ability to switch away to a stereo webcam mic that I'll bring.

If joining remote, be prepared for volume levels to vary considerably.

Your remote attendance at least helps us make quorum.
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The other thing that helps us make quorum is designating a fellow
member that you know to be your proxy. Reach out to someone you trust.

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Having not heard of any new candidates or drop-out, our existing board
of directors is likely to be re-elected by acclamation.

That said, with nominations open until the start of the meeting, we
need to be prepared for the possibility of needing an election.

Our usual tradition of emailing unique voting codes isn't happening this year.

I'm stepping up at the last minute here to be a "lazy" election officer.

I will not be emailing voting codes as has been tradition.

If, and only if we need to have an election, I will start handing out
ballots at the meeting with unique codes to members present and cross
names off a roll.

Voting for all candidates (up to 5) will be by write-in, the list of
candidates will be visible, and nobody needs to worry about perfect
spelling. (Worked for Joe in New Hampshire)

If there are members who need to leave right away after the close of
nominations, I'll quietly get ballots to them, improvise a secret
ballot box, and get someone to assist me with the video conference.

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Here's how proxies will work. Folks are going to tell us they've got
proxies, and for the sake of quorum it has been our tradition that
this is good enough.

For the sake of an election, that's not good enough. So here's the
lazy part: In the unlikely event of an election, all proxy votes will
be treated as provisional ballots and will need to go into special,
individualized provisional proxy envelopes.

We will verify the proxies authorizations later and the announcement
of the election result (if necessary) will likely be delayed until we
do so.

Folks we know on the video conference will count directly in our meeting quorum.

But you can't stuff a secret ballot over the internet.

So, in the event of an election, following the AGM itself folks on the
video conference can designate voting proxies from a list of who's on
site. Private calls can be arranged between remote members and proxies
where necessary.

In the case of video conference attendees who designate so and so to
be their voting proxy, we can treat those proxy declarations as valid
right away.


See you'all!

Mark Jenkins
last minute election officer, the lazy version (no emailed codes)