On Mar 31, 9:43=A0pm, Siobhan <n...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Anyway, so it's spring, and that means the next Convergence vote will
> need to be sorted out soon.
>
> Everybody (mostly) seemed
> to agree that the selection process needs to be modified and updated.
> What wasn't really discussed was proposals on how this is best done.
> Aspects of the vote that need to be addressed.
>
> 1. The mail-in registration.
> 2. Committees. Started off as people we know, now we're getting
> professional promoters.
> 3. Voters. Who can vote?
> 4. The C*b*l itself. More transparency?
> 5. Anything else you care about?
I think we should dump the complex architecture that's built up over
the last 14 years and get back to something similar to the original C1
vote structure.
The key point to me is that there is a Convergence community, we know
each other and, for the most part, like & trust each other so I think
we should have a process that is public & accountable & relies on the
fact that we know each other.
So - we go back to voting publically on the newsgroup (either here or
alt.gothic.convergence) instead of a secret ballot. If someone gets
their nose out of joint because a friend votes for a different
proposal then they likely have too high a drama quotient to be able to
put the event on properly anyway.
The obvious problems are fake ID's & Stephen Colbert asking The Nation
to vote for Convergence to be at the Republican National Convention
(or similar). That's where I see a role for the Cabal. Specifically,
one of us responds to each vote and accepts or rejects the voters
right to vote. Drama free? Hardly, but we should have thick enough
skins by now.
This means that the Cabal needs to be visible & public.
Siobhan, Macross, Peter, Eilis and I are pretty good on that score I
think.
I envision the process as working something like:
1) Committees get to talk about their plans whenever the **** they
want to, as early as they want to.
2) The Cabal [1] announces the official bid submission deadline.
3) Committees post their proposals on a.g. by the deadline. I like the
idea of the website appearing on altgothic.com 'cos it means that we
can retain an archive of all the bids, but I don't know that it's
necessary.
4) The Cabal annouce the official vote deadline
5) People start voting.
6) The Cabal identify the accepted & rejected voters.
6.1) If we know you (yes, even you, Satar & you, John Everett)
your vote gets recorded & we annouce that.
6.2) If we don't know you, then your vote does not get recorded &
we announce that.
6.2.1) If you think we should have recorded your vote then talk
to us - on Usenet, e-mail, IM, LJ, phone, down the pub, etc. - however
you want.
6.2.2) If you see us saying that we are not recording someone
else vote & that we should, then tell us - on Usenet, e-mail, IM, LJ,
phone, down the pub, etc. - however you want.
6.2.3) If we learn that we had totally failed to realise that for
example, SpookyGoth2323 is in fact Al Golagnia, then we will record
said vote.
7) Vote deadline.
8) Everyone gets to see the final list of who voted for what bid.
9) If anyone sees that we missed them off the list or put them inthe
wrong place then they tell us & we'll add them.
10) We have a winner.
I don't doubt that this will have lots of op****tunity for drama &
headaches, but it's not like the current process doesn't.
This approach is public & accountable & relies on the fact that we
(the Convergence community) know each other and that's the point.
[1] Incidentally "Goth convergence", "alt.gothic convergence", "gothic
convergence" and the phrase "north american net.goth festival" are
service marks of The Cabal, LLC. We incor****ated last year. It's noted
on altgothic.com & everything.
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