BCA Annual General Meeting

I'm home too late on a Monday to join it, and it's now a couple of hours into this AGM with no news, let alone earth-shattering, on the forum. Can someone or something (ChatGPT maybe) please share an insightful impartial summary of anything of substance arising?
 
I'm home too late on a Monday to join it, and it's now a couple of hours into this AGM with no news, let alone earth-shattering, on the forum. Can someone or something (ChatGPT maybe) please share an insightful impartial summary of anything of substance arising?
There were some additional statements from candidates for positions.
Secretary is contested - both candidates fielded a couple questions.
2 nominations from the floor that will go to electronic vote, otherwise pretty much as per agenda. No proposals.
 
Is it fair to continue to pose questions between now and the online vote?
I think so - I've been disappointed with the lack of campaigning so more knowledge about what people intend to do, what their track record is and what their values are is all helpful to make a decision

There is nothing in the manual of operations about elections and campaigning (which is problematic as the executive oversee their own elections). In fact, I wrote the little that is there as we hadn't had a contested election until that point and so didn't have any wording confirming how voting works or who would win.
 
Is it fair to continue to pose questions between now and the online vote?
Hi Ian,
I'm happy to field any questions in the interim period before the election results as will my colleagues on the BCA Executive:
chair@british-caving.org.uk
secretary@british-caving.org.uk
treasurer@british-caving.org.uk

Or indeed, on this forum if your questions are for public consumption.

For other contacts eg membership, insurance etc. refer to BCA website https://british-caving.org.uk/about-bca/contact-bca/

FYI There will be a delay in triggering the on-line voting system largely due to the technicalities of updating it following the nominations from the floor at yesterday evening's AGM and the availability of our people to undertake that. Personally, I would be useless doing it although it amuses me to quote the following from my good friend Robert Scott "There are 10 types of people in the world; those who understand binary and those who don't." I'm in the latter.
 
I think so - I've been disappointed with the lack of campaigning so more knowledge about what people intend to do, what their track record is and what their values are is all helpful to make a decision

There is nothing in the manual of operations about elections and campaigning (which is problematic as the executive oversee their own elections). In fact, I wrote the little that is there as we hadn't had a contested election until that point and so didn't have any wording confirming how voting works or who would win.
I think I suggested the voting system used in previous years (and I rewrote the voting website system based on that used previously written by Gary). Ari then did the updating of the code for subsequent years. PHP is a horrible programming language that should be consigned to oblivion as soon as possible.

Previous AGMs have required that candidates are actively voted _for_ in some way (i.e. it should be possible for the voters to reject a candidate). So for single-position votes (like for Secretary) it's just single-option voting with a 'Leave Vacant' pseudo-candidate i.e. you can indicate your preferred candidate or that you would prefer none of the candidates. If 'Leave Vacant' gets the most votes, nobody is elected.

For multiple-position votes (like Individual Member Representative) it's the same but with more 'Leave Vacant' options (one for each position available) so that the electorate, if they really wanted to, can choose not to elect anyone. You always put peoples' first 'Leave Vacant' vote on the first pretend candidate, second on the second, and then see if they get more votes than the real candidates.

All seems like a bit of faff but at one (pre-electronic voting) AGM at least one member representative candidate did get rejected by the AGM (i.e. more votes against than for, despite an open position).

In an ideal world you'd add preference voting as well...

I have in any event failed to do anything useful for the BCA in recent years (been too busy elsewhere) so I can't really complain about/interfere with anything.
 
I am no longer responsible for these things (thank God), and wasn't able to help with preparing a voting system this year due to other commitments, so I don't know whether the existing electronic voting system is being used or whether something new is happening. The biggest challenge was always emailing unique voting details to the membership, so it'll be interesting to see how that's tackled this year. I don't think any pre-AGM info was emailed out, was it?
 
There were some additional statements from candidates for positions.
Secretary is contested - both candidates fielded a couple questions.
2 nominations from the floor that will go to electronic vote, otherwise pretty much as per agenda. No proposals.
When you say "two nominations from the floor", am I right in assuming these were for vacant positions?

Or... Is it possible that where you have a candidate who has given advance notice of his intention to stand, a nominee from the floor can still challenge and go forward to the vote?

I didn't think the later was possible. So that, if for example, Rostam was the only advance notice candidate, he would take on the role as long as he received a positive number of votes (more yehs than nehs).

Appreciate anyone in the know explaining the current situation.
 
I am no longer responsible for these things (thank God), and wasn't able to help with preparing a voting system this year due to other commitments, so I don't know whether the existing electronic voting system is being used or whether something new is happening. The biggest challenge was always emailing unique voting details to the membership, so it'll be interesting to see how that's tackled this year. I don't think any pre-AGM info was emailed out, was it?
We have managed to resurrect your system Ari but it gave us a challenge and with everything else going on, pre-AGM info was lacking for which I apologise. We had hoped to have the Just Go Membership system up and running which will give us the ability to email all our members in one hit but are currently faced with staged email release to avoid the spam problem - time consuming. Hopefully, this will have been addressed by the end of June, in the meantime, we will be sending a staged email with voting instructions shortly.
I have already acknowledged your contribution to the "cause" but worth reiterating my grateful thanks on behalf of the membership for what you provided for BCA, largely in the background and without doubt, as I commented in my report to the AGM this year about all those working for BCA, above and beyond expectations.
 
We had hoped to have the Just Go Membership system up and running which will give us the ability to email all our members in one hit but are currently faced with staged email release to avoid the spam problem - time consuming.
I feel your pain! If Simon wants a hand emailing those out using AWS SES as in previous years he is welcome to get in touch.

my grateful thanks on behalf of the membership for what you provided for BCA
That's very kind, and I am also grateful to the BCA for giving me such a superb opportunity to develop my skills, and contribute to a sport that I love.

Good luck with the voting, and well done for getting JustGo happening!
 
When you say "two nominations from the floor", am I right in assuming these were for vacant positions?
Correct. Standing from the floor is only possible if there are no prior nominations. The two nominations are for Individual Member Rep 2023-2023 (Jess Brock) and Group Member Rep 2023-2025 (Aodhán Ó Gabhann). Those positions were unfilled at the 3023 AGM. Zac Woodford withdrew his nomination for Individual Rep when he was co-opted for the Publications & Information role (which is Council appointment, not elected) so the role remained vacant.
 
I feel your pain! If Simon wants a hand emailing those out using AWS SES as in previous years he is welcome to get in touch.


That's very kind, and I am also grateful to the BCA for giving me such a superb opportunity to develop my skills, and contribute to a sport that I love.

Good luck with the voting, and well done for getting JustGo happening!
Thanks for your offer of help Ari, I'll pass it on to Simon. He's committed to his other work this week but may well call on you for help. Thanks once again.
 
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