Full text of Agenda Items - Distant Voting motion
From SI Exco News
Full text of Agenda Items - Distant Voting motion
Received 29/09/05 from NEW ZEALAND
ITEM No. COUNTRY
NZE-003 NEW ZEALAND
Distant Voting motion for eGA - Final Version, 29 Sept 2005
A motion to amend the Servas International Statues to establish Distant Voting as a procedure for decision making by the member groups of Servas International between meetings of the General Assembly.
This final version of the proposed motion reflects comments received on the third draft as noted.
The first draft was prepared following the first Distant Vote conference call facilitated by Gary Sealy, SI Peace Secretary, on the 30th May 2005. The participants were people interested in working on a "Distant Vote" proposal for consideration at the eGA in 2006. This first draft was circulated by Gary to more than twenty people around the world, the call participants and a wider interest group. It was also posted on the on the www.servasforum.org website.
The second draft was prepared following discussion of the first draft on the Distant Vote conference call on the 16th June 2005, again facilitated by Gary Sealy. This draft attempted to respond to the many issues raised in the discussions and e-mail correspondence up to that time. It included a partial first draft of rules for the Distant Voting process. Draft Two, dated 23 June 2005, was also widely circulated by Gary, myself and via the www.servasforum.org website.
The third draft attempted to address and reflect the few comments received on Draft Two and included a complete first draft of the Servas Rules for Distant Voting. An updated set of the explanatory notes and a brief summary of the process to date was also included.
The third draft was circulated to the Distant Vote working group and made available for discussion at the Northern Europe meeting in mid-August and at the Asian Meeting in September. It was also again posted on servasforum - having received 26 "views" to date.
We look forward to further comment and feedback - either via servasforum or direct to myself or Gary Sealy - so they can be considered prior to the discussion at the eGA2006.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the many people over many years that have worked to give Servas International a process for making decisions between meetings of the General Assembly. I understand that the idea has been around since the GA in Thailand in 2001 or before. The S3 proposal considered in 2004 at Barcelona included "an annual proxy vote/ballot". This provided the starting point for the workshop that prepared the Member Group Voting Proposal adopted at Barcelona as a process for consultation of member groups between GAs. The final step is to amendend the Servas International Statues.
Thus, while I have picked up the responsibility for drafting the proposed motion, I have tried to build on the ideas from earlier proposals as well as drawing on input from as many people as possible, so we can make the appropriate change to the SI Statutes.
Chris Patterson, on behalf of the Distant Vote working group, Joint National Secretary, Servas New Zealand servasnz@pl.net
Table of Contents Introduction Page 2 Motion 1 - To amend Statutes to allow Distant Vote Page 4 Notes on "Distant Voting" clauses of Motion 1 Page 5 Motion 2 - Adopting "Servas Rules for Distant Voting" Page 8 - Principles " - Responsibilities and Procedures " Notes on The "Servas Rules for Distant Voting" Page 11 - Principles " - Responsibilities and Procedures " Thoughts On the roles of e-mail & internet in Distant Voting Page 13
Introduction
The aim of the Distant Voting process is to provide Servas International, its member groups and Executive Committee, with a means of addressing significant issues that may arise between meetings of the General Assembly. Thus it is not intended to take over the role of the Executive Committee or to replace the General Assembly. It is intended to provide an additional tool to facilitate the orderly and harmonious governance of Servas International.
When reading this proposal and the motions it is important to remember that: • the voters in the Distant Voting process are the member groups of Servas International, ie. national groups with 10 or more members that have been accepted as members at a General Assembly meeting. Thus we are considering around 70-80 potential voters who are distributed around the world; • it is likely that most of the persons authorised to receive and cast the vote on behalf of member groups will be the national secretary or some other officeholder in the member group and so we can expect that they will generally be familiar with the operation of Servas International; • the Distant Voting process is not a referendum involving thousands of Servas hosts and travelers who have limited knowledge of Servas beyond their own experiences as a host or traveler or both.
There are three background items, agreed by the working group in early discussions, that underlie the proposal: 1/ That the name for the process should be Distant Voting. Distant Voting is a verb (as used in the current SI Statues, Section VI). The terms Distant Vote (a noun) and Distant Voting (as a adjective), as in Distant Voting process, may also be used as appropriate.
2/ That the appropriate way of amending the Statutes was to simply add a Distant Voting section to the Statutes. ie. Renaming section VI Voting at Meetings and then inserting a new section VII Distant Voting and renumbering current sections VII to IX.
This simple and direct approach made the prime focus for the group the drafting of a motion to make Distant Voting a way for SI to make decisions between GAs.
3/ That the details of the Distant Voting process should be put in a set of Rules for Distant Voting and that a majority vote of the General Assembly would be enough to amend or replace the rules. This means that: • the Statutes can be simpler with the details put into the rules • the rules can be changed without changing the Statutes • a lower voting threshold can be used to change the rules at the GA • the rules can be changed by using the Distant Voting process itself • the rules can be evolved as we get more experience with the Distant Voting process.
The Distant Voting procedure as proposed aims to provide the member groups of Servas International with a decision-making power similar to that of the General Assembly between meetings of the General Assembly. Concern has been expressed that the Distant Voting process should be limited to "paper based" decisions. For example, votes on the annual accounts and the auditor's report are "paper based" decisions - in the sense that they relate to written material.
The Distant Voting process should be used to address a wider range of issues and decisions. This should be possible if the subject of the vote is a clearly written motion supported by written material covering the background to the decision and setting out both sides of the argument. The process and the information provided needs to be at least as robust and open as those associated with meetings of the General Assembly. The rules aim to set out these requirements.
Words such as "sending", "voting paper", "written material" and "distributed" have been used both in the proposed new statute and the rules. This does not mean we see the Distant Voting Process being restricted to paper and postal delivery - far from it! They have been used to represent the function or process rather than the method of "sending" the message or information. Thus we expect Distant Voting to use e-mail, internet and faxes as well as paper and snail mail.
The Distant Voting proposal is presented as two motions. The first is an amendment that adds a new section to the Servas International Statues in three steps:
The existing section VI Voting is changed to "Voting at Meetings" to open the way for a new section VII "Distant Voting". The addition of the new section VII Distant Voting. The renumbering of the following sections accordingly.
The second motion adopts an initial set of Servas Rules for Distant Voting.
Motion 1: That the Servas International Statues be amended as follows: a/ That section VI of the Statutes be renamed "Voting at Meetings". b/ That the following be added to the Statutes as a new section VII Distant Voting
"VII Distant Voting 1) The member groups of Servas International may pass resolutions affecting Servas International between meetings of the General Assembly using the following Distant Voting process. 2) Each member group of Servas International shall have one vote on each resolution to be decided by the Distant Voting process. Votes may be cast by mail or electronically using a verifiable voting process. 3) The Distant Voting process shall not be used to amend the Statutes or to vote on the dissolution of Servas International. 4) At least one Distant Vote shall be held each year, the Annual Distant Vote, to vote on the annual accounts and auditor's report. 5) The Distant Voting process may be used to vote on: a) urgent matters that need to be resolved before the next meeting of the General Assembly; b) a resolution to suspend or remove from office any officer of Servas International; c) the election of officers to fill Executive Committee or other Servas International vacancies by secret vote; d) resolutions arising from decisions of the General Assembly. 6) An additional Distant Vote may be held between Annual Distant Votes. The closing date for the vote shall be at least four and no more than eight months after the preceding annual Distant Vote and at least six months before or after any meeting of the General Assembly. 7) The Executive Committee shall determine items to be voted on under Sub Clauses 5a), 5b) and 5c). 8) The General Assembly may specifically authorise a committee or working group to prepare and submit resolutions to be voted on by the Distant Voting process. 9) The Distant Voting process shall include three voting options for each resolution, "support/yes", "against/no" and "abstain". 10) Resolutions to be decided by the Distant Voting process as well as the voting procedure to be used must be distributed to member groups in writing at least three months before the closing date for the vote. 11) Proposals receiving "support/yes" votes from more than fifty percent of the member groups eligible to vote in the Distant Vote shall be declared adopted as if they had been passed by a meeting of the General Assembly. 12) The procedures for the conduct of the Distant Voting process shall be governed by the Servas Rules for Distant Voting. The Servas Rules for Distant Voting may be amended or replaced by a majority vote of the General Assembly."
c/ That the current sections VII to IX of the Statutes be renumbered VIII to X and any references to them adjusted accordingly.
Notes on "Distant Voting" clauses of Motion 1:
Clause 1) The purpose of clause 1) is to clearly empower Servas International to use Distant Voting (DV) to make decisions. The revised clause is a merging of previously offered options: The member groups of Service International are empowered to use the Distant Voting process to make decisions on specific proposals between meetings of the General Assembly. OR Decisions affecting Servas International may be made using the Distant Voting Process between meetings of the General Assembly.
Note: There has been some discussion around whether the Swiss Civil Code (the legal basis for the SI Statutes) permits Servas International to include Distant Voting in its statutes. We believe we should be able to - with the appropriate wording. we understand that EXCO is seeking legal advice on this matter before the eGA in April 2006.
Clauses 4) & 5) This Clause defines the matters that may be considered by the Distant Voting process. In line with a number of comments we have narrowed the range of items that can be considered by Distant Vote, in particular we have removed the discussion and polling type of proposal and the right of national groups to submit items. This leaves EXCO responsible for determining what matters should be voted on under Sub Clauses 5a), 5b) & 5c) - as set down in Clause 7.
There appears to be wide agreement that the annual accounts and auditor's report should be voted on each year using the Distant Vote process - this requirement has been set down in Clause 4) and has the effect of establishing an Annual Distant Vote.
There has been considerable discussion as to what other matters the Distant Vote should be used to vote on:
5a) Voting on "urgent matters" has raised the most comment. The concern seems to be that it may be difficult to adequately present the issues involved in the matter being considered. We have tried to cover this in the rules. 5b) This provides an explicit way of either suspending or removing a Servas International officer from office between meetings of the General Assembly. Suspending a Servas officer would mean that they are no longer responsible for their duties, but that they cannot be replaced until their status has been reviewed at a General Assembly. Removal from office would mean the position is vacant and steps can be taken to fill the vacancy. There appears to be wide agreement that this is a suitable matter to be resolved by Distant Vote. 5c) There also appears to be agreement that using the Distant Vote process to fill Servas International vacancies is appropriate. The Statutes currently provide for the election of officers to be by a secret vote (Section VI, 2). Thus this provision is carried over to elections that use the Distant Voting Process. This also raises the question of whether the right to request a secret vote on any issue should also apply to Distant Voting. At this point we have addressed this in the Rules by letting EXCO decide if the voting on a Distant Voting resolution should be secret. 5d) There has been support for the General Assembly making decisions that result in a matter being considered in a later Distant Vote.
Clause 6) The Annual Distant Vote (ADV) to deal with the annual accounts etc. is established by Clause 4). This ADV could also include votes on other matters. This clause allows for another DV between the annual votes, but requires that there is at least 4 months between DVs and that they cannot be held "just before" or "just after" a GA. We have used 4 months to separate DVs since we realised that using 6 months could lead to the annual DV creeping thus delaying the consideration of the annual accounts. We believe it may be useful to have the option of two Distant Votes in a year - we trust this is a clear way of spacing DVs. It has been suggested that DVs be once in each "civil year" (We assume this is equivalent to a fiscal or financial year which relates to the period covered by the annual accounts - as opposed to a calendar year which is 1 January to 31 December). We have stayed with the less formal definition "annually" since this provides some flexibility - we feel we may need this as we are a voluntary multi-national organisation and the timing of GAs tends to vary within the year.
Clause 7) This clause puts the onus on EXCO to explicitly decide that a matter is urgent and cannot wait until the next GA and that it should be considered by Distant Vote. We hope this provides a balance between avoiding a flood of Distant Vote resolutions while leaving EXCO the flexibility to resolve urgent and important matters should they arise.
Clause 8) While this is somewhat open, this openness is limited by requiring a decision of a GA. The GA might also decide to refer matters discussed but not voted on at the GA, to be decided by Distant Vote.
Clause 9) While an earlier draft included the 4th option "requires further consideration", we have limited the voting options to three. Several people have said "discussion" votes or polling does not need to be explicitly included in the SI Statutes. We would agree. EXCO could use them on their own decision. The motion passed at Barcelona in 2004 provided a mandate and a basic procedure for a "discussion" process. If necessary, the procedures for this distant discussion or polling or formulating process could be added in the Rules proposed below at some later date. In particular the "discussion" process could use an option "requires further consideration" to prevent proposals that are seen to have merit but are not yet ready to be adopted being simply defeated and the work put into them wasted.
We have been advised that in some countries a vote on accounts and the auditor's report, as required under Clause 4), must be decided with only the "support/yes" and "against/no" options. This does not appear to be a requirement for Servas International at present, resolutions on the accounts have been voted on in the same way as other matters. Also, there is no reference, in the Statutes or the Swiss Civil Code, to different voting being required for votes on the accounts and the auditor's report. Thus there appears to be no reason for Servas to change the current practice.
Clause 10) This Clause is similar to the requirement in the SI Statutes (Clause IV, 2) that members must be given "at least three months written notice of the agenda, time and place" of the GA. By the time this notice is sent out the text of the resolution must be finalised as well at the details of the voting process and timetable. It is assumed that additional information giving background to the resolutions would normally also be included.
Clause 11) The use of the phrase "eligible to vote" in this clause has been questioned - on the basis that to vote is a right of all the member groups. That is agreed. However, the reason for using "eligible to vote" is to make it explicit that a majority, ie. more than 50%, of ALL members is required, not just a majority of the members who voted. This is a more demanding requirement than for a vote at a GA where all that is required is the majority of the members voting (they can only vote if they are present at the meeting). A more demanding requirement is appropriate since Distant Voting does not allow the same face-to-face discussion provided by a meeting and as a resolution passed by the GA is "binding on the activities and priorities of Servas International" (Statutes Section IV, 7).
Clause 12) As noted earlier, the Rules provide a formal document that sets out all the detail of how the Distant Vote process is to be conducted, thus allowing the Statutes to remain simple and concise.
Motion 2: (to be considered if Motion 1 is accepted) That the following be adopted as the Servas Rules for Distant Voting.
"Servas Rules for Distant Voting
Principles 1/ The Distant Voting process shall operate by sending voting papers and information to one person, the Authorised Voter, from each member group who has been authorised to receive and cast the Distant Vote for that member group. 2/ The aim of the Distant Voting process is to allow all member groups to participate without being unduly disadvantaged by issues of language, distance, available finances and access to information technology. 3/ The procedures for deciding who receives the voting papers and then how the Distant Vote is cast shall be determined locally by each member group. 4/ The Distant Voting process shall be conducted in a fair, open and transparent manner with information about the Distant Vote and the results available on request to all Servas hosts and travellers. 5/ To assist member groups to make an informed decision all resolutions will be accompanied by a balanced outline of the issues involved and information on where additional information can be obtained. 6/ To protect the integrity of the voting process details of how each member group voted shall be available on request to all member groups, except where the resolution was to be decided by secret vote. 7/ These Principles shall be used to clarify particular issues relating to the Distant Voting process that are not clear or have not been anticipated in the Responsibilities and Procedures set out below.
Responsibilities and Procedures 1/ The President shall be responsible for the organisation of the Distant Voting and for ensuring that the process is conducted in accordance with the Statues and these Rules.
2/ For each Distant Vote the Executive Committee shall be responsible for: a) deciding that a Distant Vote should be held and then determining: • the closing date for the vote • the date by which the resolutions and supporting material must be sent to member groups • the date by which any changes to Authorised Voter details must be received; b) appointing an independent person, the Distant Vote Officer, to be responsible for running the Distant Vote process and to receive and count the votes; c) authorising, if considered necessary, one or more indpendent persons or organisations to assist the Distant Vote Officer in running the Distant Vote; d) determining the wording of the resolutions to be decided by the Distant Voting process; e) determining which resolutions, if any, are to be decided by secret vote; f) determining the languages that the voting information and supporting material is to be translated into for distribution to member groups.
3/ The General Secretary shall be responsible for: a) advising member groups promptly of any Executive Committee decision to hold a Distant Vote, including the closing date for votes, the date by which the resolutions and supporting material will be sent to member groups and the date by which any changes to Authorised Voter details must be received; b) keeping a record of the name and contact details of the person designated by each member group to be their Authorised Voter for the Distant Voting process; c) providing the Distant Vote Officer with a list of the member groups eligible to vote and contact details for the Authorised Voter for each member group; d) assembling the supporting material to be sent with the voting information; e) sending advise of the results of the Distant Vote to member groups within one month of receiving them from the Distant Vote Officer.
4/ The National Secretary of each member group shall be responsible for advising the General Secretary of: a) the name and contact details for the Authorised Voter for their member group; b) the preferred methods of communication for the Distant Voting process; c) the preferred language for written material and if possible, one or more other languages that would be acceptable; d) any changes to this information, in particular when an upcoming Distant Vote has been notified.
5/ The Distant Vote Officer shall be responsible for: a) preparing a report to the Executive Committee, including recommendations on a budget and timetable for the Distant Vote process, the method of electronic voting, the postal address and the vote authenticity checks to be used, for approval by the Executive Committee; b) sending the resolutions, the voting instructions and supporting information to the Authorsied Voter for each eligible member group as advised by the General Secretary; c) receiving the votes cast, verifying that they are eligible to be counted, and then recording how each member group voted on the resolutions. Votes may be disallowed on the grounds that were not received on time, are not authentic, the voter's intention is not clear or the vote cannot be counted for any other reason; d) counting the valid votes received, "support/yes", "against/no" and "abstain", to determine the result of the vote on each resolution and to identify any resolutions passed by more than fifty percent of the member groups eligible to vote and thus having the same effect as a General Assembly vote; e) reporting the results to the General Secretary within one month of the closing date for the vote; f) preparing a written report to the Executive Committee on the Distant Vote within two months of the closing date for the vote. The report shall include the voting results on each resolution, the number of member groups eligible to vote, a detailed list of how each member group voted on non-secret resolutions and the number of votes received but not counted with the reason they were disallowed; g) holding all votes received in a secure place and keeping the votes and the results confidential until member groups have been advised of the results by the General Secretary; h) handing over all voting papers and such other information as may be requested as part of an independent recount and audit of the Distant Vote; i) destroying all votes received and any other confidential information if no request for a recount has been received within three months of the date the result of the Distant Vote are sent to member groups; j) disposing of any confidential information and other records relating to the Distant Vote process in consultation with the General Secretary.
6/ The supporting information to be sent to the Authorised Voter for eligible member groups shall in all cases include details of the voting procedure, the date by which votes must be returned to be counted and a voting paper containing the resolutions to be voted on. One or more of the following shall also be included as is appropriate for each of the resolutions to be voted on: a) a copy of the annual accounts and auditor's report, with comments from the Treasurer and/or Executive Committee if they wish; b) a balanced outline of the background to the resolution with a summary of the key issues for and against the proposal, - estimates of the financial implications, if any, of adopting or not adopting the resolution, - additional information or submissions in support of and against the resolution or details of how this additional information can be obtained; c) a statement of the grounds for the suspension or removal from office of the Servas International officer concerned and their statement in reply; d) brief CVs and statements from the candidates nominated for election and a job description for each position to be elected; e) any other information that the General Secretary or Executive Committee determine will assist member groups to make an informed decision. The voting information and supporting material shall be translated and distributed in English, French, Spanish and any other languages as determined by the Executive Committee.
7/ If the matters to be voted on in a particular Distant Vote create a conflict of interest for the President or the General Secretary the remaining Executive Committee members shall appoint a replacement to carry out their Distant Vote responsibilities until the voting process has been completed.
8/ An independent recount and audit of the results of the Distant Vote may be called for by a written request to the President by: a) any Authorised Voter for the Distant Vote; b) or any Servas International officer who is the subject of a resolution under Sub Clause 5b; c) or any candidate for election under Sub Clause 5c; d) or the Executive Committee. The request must be made within three months of the date the result of the Distant Vote is sent to member groups. The President shall be responsible for appointing an independent person to conduct the recount and audit of the running of the Distant Vote. The results of the recount and the audit report shall be completed and given to the President within two months of receipt of the request. The result of the recount shall be declared as the result of the Distant Vote and advised to member groups. Details of the recounted voting and the audit report shall be available on request to member groups. Any further challenges to the results shall be resolved at the next meeting of the General Assembly.
9/ The term of office of the Distant Vote Officer shall end no later than four months after the date for the Distant Vote result is sent to member groups."
Notes on the Servas Rules for Distant Voting
It is anticipated that these rules would be added to the Servas Handbook.
Principles The purpose of these principles is to provide an overview of the intent of the Distant Voting and how the process should operate.
In particular the principle is established that a nominated individual receives and casts the vote on behalf of the member group. It is up to the member groups themselves to decide who will receive and cast their vote and also the extent to which the voter is required to consult with the member group's board or committee etc. This is a similar arrangement to that for the appointment of delegates to the General Assembly.
An important thread running through the principles is that the Distant Voting process should be inclusive, fair and open - so that all member groups are able to participate and to cast an informed vote.
The Principles can be used to clarify particular issues that may not be clear as set out in the Responsibilities and Procedures or when something arises that has not been anticipated.
Responsibilities and Procedures 1/ Following the style used in the Statutes the President has been made responsible for the overall Distant Voting process - the President already has a similar responsibility for meetings of the General Assembly (Statues Clause VII 1 f ).
2/ The Executive Committee (EXCO) has been made responsible for the decisions that need to be made for each Distant Vote. It is anticipated that this will be done by EXCO formally adopting and recording a resolution to hold a Distant Vote. This assumes that each Distant Vote, which may include several resolutions, will be managed as a separate activity. It also makes EXCO the gatekeeper for the Distant Vote process, leaving open the possibility of member groups raising issues with EXCO that eventually become the subject of a Distant Vote resolution.
3/ The General Secretary has been made responsible for keeping records of who the Authorised Voter is for each member group. This is in line with the responsibilities of the General Secretary as set out in the Statutes (Clause VII 3 ). It is not clear from the Statutes who is responsible for maintaining the list of member groups - those national groups with 10 or more hosts voted in as members by a General Assembly.
4/ The National Secretary of each member group is made responsible for advising the General Secretary of the name etc. of the person who is to receive and cast the vote on behalf of their member group. This means that the General Secretary does not have to rush round just before each Distant Vote to find out who is to receive the voting papers for each member group. The voting papers are sent to the last recorded Authorised Voter, unless this is changed before the deadline for advising changes.
5/ The position of Distant Vote Officer has been created to be responsible for running the Distant Voting process. It has been assumed that this person will be appointed by EXCO to plan and implement the voting process and that their term of office will end when this has been done. Thus it is not a permanent position, although the same person might be re-appointed several times. • By making it a separate position an additional person is available to do the work involved and they are able to make the Distant Vote their prime activity for Servas. It also removes the immediate responsibility for the Distant Vote from EXCO and other officers giving it a degree of independence. • The provision for the Distant Vote Officer to be supported by other persons or organisations would allow them to have a lawyer or the like receive the votes or a computer firm to provide an electronic voting facility. This provides some flexibility for an evolving process. It also provides the opportunity for experience and the workload to be shared. • These rules have not detailed the methods of electronic voting to be used. It is left to the Distant Vote Officer to research available methods and then to recommend an appropriate method to EXCO for approval. This means that the electronic voting method can easily be changed as our understanding of our needs develops and new technology becomes available. • The votes are to be kept confidential by the Distant Voting Officer until the results are advised to member groups. This is to ensure that voters do not get any information about the voting before they cast their vote. However, once the results have been announced detailed information on the votes cast by each member group will be available on request. This is no different from a "paddle" or show of hands vote at a General Assembly. The availability of the information is seen as an important way of protecting the integrity of the Distant Vote process. All member groups have the opportunity to check that their votes have been recorded and counted as they intended.
6/ As noted earlier there have been concerns that the Distant Voting process should only be used for "paper based" votes. This rule aims to set out the type of information that should be included with the voting papers. For some issues there will be many pages of supporting information - however this is necessary and essential if the process is to be fair and allow voters to make an informed decision. It will be the responsibility of the General Secretary to gather together the appropriate information - it may be written by many different people who have an interest in the issues to be decided - and to ensure that the result is informative, fair, accurate and balanced.
To break down the barriers of language it is proposed that the voting material be translated into at least three languages. If the matter is important enough to warrant being the subject of a Distant Vote then it is important enough to be translated.
7/ This rule requires the President or General Secretary to step aside from their role in the Distant Voting process if the Distant Vote creates a conflict of interest for them. Again this is intended to protect the integrity of the Distant Voting process.
8/ This rule provides that a review of the results may be requested by any of the people who have an interest in the results of the Distant Vote. It has been assumed that the recount results will replace the result of the first count. It is left to the next General Assembly to resolve any further challenges to the results.
These rules have been restricted to matters relating directly to the Distant Voting process.
As indicated earlier, there has been some discussion among the working group of the role of less formal means of consultation, such as discussion papers and polling of member groups, by EXCO. Our understanding is that there is nothing to stop EXCO using these means of consultation at present. This raises the question: Do we need rules for these processes?
Since these consultation tools are non-binding on EXCO or the member groups the procedures for them can be determined by EXCO or delegated to a working group and a more formal set of rules does not seem to be necessary at present. Restricting these rules to the Distant Voting process also makes a clear distinction between the formal and potentially binding Distant Voting process and any other informal and non-binding consultation processes.
Some thoughts on the roles of e-mail & Internet in Distant Voting (From Chris Patterson - Prepared for this final version without the benefit of feedback.)
Clause 2) of the proposed Distant Voting statute provides that: "Votes may be cast by mail or electronically using a verifiable voting process".
The second Principle in the rules is: "The aim of the Distant Voting process is to allow all member groups to participate without being unduly disadvantaged by issues of language, distance, available finances and access to information technology."
Given the wide diversity in the resources available to Servas member groups I expect that ordinary mail - stamps, letters, and postal delays - will be an essential part of the Distant Voting process for some time to come. Thus I see the role of e-mail and the Internet as optional extras in the Distant Voting process rather than central to its smooth operation.
I say this not because I am against technology - far from it, I work at a computer most days. I say it because I believe Servas, a global multinational organisation operated by volunteers with many different mother tongues, must be practical and pragmatic if the above principle is to be honored.
I know many people have been pondering and exploring the implications of an "electronic solution" for Distant Voting. I see seven separate steps or requirements within the process:
• Sending notification of the Distant Vote and details of the key dates • Updating details of the Authorised Voters • Distribution of the resolutions, voting papers and background information • Discussion of the issues • Returning the votes and verifying their authenticity • Counting the votes • Publishing the results of the vote.
Sending Notification… This is a clear opportunity for the use of e-mail and the web site - as we are doing. This provides a fast, economical and efficient method of sending out this limited amount of information. But I believe that it is essential that members groups have the option of receiving this information by post or fax as well as e-mail.
Updating details of the Authorised Voters Again e-mail offers a fast, economical and efficient way of member groups sending this information to the General Secretary. But where e-mail is not a viable option post or fax will do the job.
Distribution of the resolutions, voting papers… For most Distant Votes I would expect the information to be distributed at this stage will run to many pages. The more significant the issue the more background information there is likely to be. And the greater the need for member groups to have printed copies of the information so they can be read and digested at leisure.
While e-mail attachments and the web site allow larger volumes of information to be distributed, they also transfer the work and cost of making printed copies to the local member group. In doing so we are likely to swap more efficient high speed double sided coping for one sided printing using slower home printer. As was demonstrated at Barcelona distribution of "conference papers" via the web site is really a second best option when member groups need the information to meaningfully contribute to the decision making.
Thus I again expect that many member groups will appreciate the option of a mailed copy of the papers.
Discussion of the issues This is certainly an area where the Internet and e-mail come into their own - for those who have reasonable access to them. The operation of the Distant Vote working group is a good example. The challenge is how do we include those who have limited access to these technologies.
Returning the votes and verifying their authenticity A simple way of providing verification of the authenticity of the votes is to assign a unique number/code to each voting paper/member group. The number can be large - 9-10 digits and/or letters and randomly generated. The Distant Vote Officer keeps a private register of the numbers issued and checks incoming votes against this register. Duplicates and counterfeits can easily be detected and disallowed. For an additional cross check, two different numbers might be sent independently to the member group - both to be returned with the voting paper….
This approach allows voting papers to be distributed by letter, fax, e-mail etc. and for the votes to be returned the same way to the Distant Vote Officer at a designated address, fax number or e-mail address. Receipt of the voting paper and details of the vote might be sent back to the voter as confirmation that the vote had been received.
I personally believe that progress counts of the voting, if any, should be kept confidential by the Distant Vote Officer until the voting process has been completed. I also believe that details of how each member group voted should be available - just as it is when a vote is taken at a General Assembly.
Counting the votes We are not going to have more than around 80 votes - the voters are only the 80 or so member groups, not the many thousands of hosts and travellers! Thus counting the votes manually is no big task. I feel we need to keep this in mind when considering "electronic solutions" for Distant Voting.
A simple spreadsheet will allow the votes to be recorded and tallied very easily. In this way there is no problem, in handling votes of different types, mail, fax, e-mail etc. and the spreadsheet can easily be converted into an e-mail or text document for publication.
Overall, I feel that for the Distant Vote process an elaborate "electronic solution" to vote counting is not an appropriate use of time and effort for something that will at most be used twice a year.
Publishing the results of the vote Again this is an opportunity to make use of e-mail and the web site to quickly disseminate the Distant Vote results. With mailed copies as required and a summary/backup included in the next SI News. As indicated above, detailed results from a spreadsheet can easily be converted to text for publication.
In conclusion, I believe we should keep the whole process as simple and flexible as possible - particularly until we have some experience of the process in action. A hybrid postal/e-mail/internet system that allows member groups to advise the mode of communication they want to use should work well.
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