Re: [atlarge-discuss] PROPOSAL: that we adopt the Polling Booth as an ongoing tool for measuring membership opinion

["Richard Henderson" <richardhenderson@ntlworld.com>]

Further to this PROPOSAL, I also suggest that we poll the membership to
appoint 3 overseers for the Polling Booth, whose responsibilities will be to
uphold the processes we agree, and guarantee the integrity of all votes.

I have further thoughts on the use and development of the Polling Booth.

It is now clear that members want the right to pose questions, and are
willing to be polled regularly.

In order to facilitate this in good order, and involve as many people as
possible, I suggest:

(a) The Polling Booth itself is used to list all incoming questions from
individual members. These questions would then enter an interim pool of
questions and members would vote on which questions they wish to mandate.

(b) Every eight weeks, the whole membership would be contacted, and a full
and official Poll would be carried out, of the TEN questions which receive
the biggest 'ongoing' mandate, plus TWO questions selected at random.

(c) Any questions not selected for Polling could be re-submitted to the next
phase's interim pool.

To me, the benefits of this would be that the membership itself would
determine which questions went into the actual Poll, rather than the Panel;
the specific notification to vote would then focus ALL members on specific
occasions; and there would be a random element to allow for the minority
issue that might otherwise get sidelined.

My concern would be that if we just have Polls going on day by day, and
going on all the time, we won't actually attract the same scale of voting
(and thus we'll lose representation) that we will attract if we specify date
and notify timescales. Equally we can't keep notifying members day after
day, and so a regular eight week poll seems to make more orderly sense.

I *know* there will be people who say eight weeks is too frequent, but
that's only 6 or 7 times a year, and it's clear from this week's poll that
members actually *WANT* to be involved in these polls.

So I'm proposing the free posting of questions by members *in their own
words*.
I'm proposing an ongoing process for members to mandate the most popular
questions.
I'm proposing a regular eight-weekly Poll to involve the full membership
through a single notification.
And I'm proposing 3 overseers to act as guardians of the process, elected by
the membership.

We can set this all rolling, if the Panel agrees to adopt the Polling Booth
as an ongoing tool for measuring membership opinion. It seems to work, and
Joop - who has set it up - has received a big vote of personal confidence.

The OUTCOME will be: every member will have the right to pose questions,
worded not by the panel but by themselves; every member will decide which
Questions are actually polled, not the Panel; and every member will be
involved in steering and determining the future of our organisation and its
policies.

Richard Henderson


----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Henderson <richardhenderson@ntlworld.com>
To: <atlarge-discuss@lists.fitug.de>
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2003 6:39 PM
Subject: [atlarge-discuss] PROPOSAL: that we adopt the Polling Booth as an
ongoing tool for measuring membership opinion


HelpJudyth Mermelstein called for a vote to accept the Polling Booth as an
information-gathering tool and as a temporary means by which we can break
our stalemate and get on with with our tasks. Hugh Blair seconded this. As
Judyth says, Joop's polling-booth may not be perfect but it's affordable and
available now.

The members who took part in the Poll this week also stated, by a clear
majority, that they would like polls to continue regularly, and to be
involved through such polls in determining our policies and future
direction.

In recognition of members' wishes and Judyth's earlier motion, I PROPOSE:

"That we adopt the Polling Booth as an ongoing tool for measuring membership
opinion."

Richard Henderson



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