Hi,

I write to chime in my opinions on the topics in this thread. But, first i find it necessary to preface this message with a meta-discussion.

--- Meta-Discussion: The messed-up election ---

With out alleging any impropriety actions beyond those mentioned in last years election correspondence ( http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/discussion/2016-April/010944.html ). I think it's widely agreed that many issues from all-time low voter turn out to Paul Boddie's points (Ie: "a misleading process") combined to make this a messed-up election.

anomalous - ajd.
1. deviating from or inconsistent with the common order, form, or rule; irregular; abnormal:
Advanced forms of life may be anomalous in the universe.
2. not fitting into a common or familiar type, classification, or pattern; unusual:
He held an anomalous position in the art world.
3. incongruous or inconsistent.

I don't want to place blame exclusivity on the voting process, but IMO it's the functional bottle-neck of this voting system. At the very least, this statement from the wiki needs to be revised:

"Voting System: For the voting process we will use the Schulze method, a popular voting system used by Debian, Wikimedia and others. It is a well tested method and has proven to be resistant to voting anomalies."

Because the last two years elections have been anomalous!

--- End-Meta Discussion ---

I'm thinking in an Abstract way about what happened here. How can software help us reach consensus and over-come issues that seem to be filibustered: perhaps a new voting method?

I know the direction we need to be headed: engaging with more fellows by showing them the positive effects of effective representation and administration. The wiki is a huge tool for that. But, diverting people to another site to vote is a detour that probably caused some people to lose their vote. Is there a possibility to amend the wiki software with polling function so fellows can voice their opinions on issues facing the foundation?

* Title change
This is the first time ive heard about the plan to transition from Fellows to Supporters. Can i get linked to the aforementioned discussions? As long as this title is preserved for the time-being, im open to considering other options.

As an idea to improve governance, why not include important decisions like this as a referendum in the election?

On 27 April 2017 at 06:25, Franz Seidl <fseidl@f9s.eu> wrote:

Hi Eric,

in my opinion a downturn in voter participation is to be expected when
the decision gets more complicated and time consuming. ("Oh, looks like
this will take longer than expected. I don't have time for this now, I
will do it in the evening..." - what could possibly go wrong?)

Btw, do the absolute numbers point in the same direction?

Regards,
Franz

Am 25.04.2017 um 13:00 schrieb Erik Albers:
> Hi list,
>
> the Fellowship elections 2017 are over and the winner is Daniel Pocock.
>
> https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170425-01
>
> I like to thank all candidates for bringing life into this years election and
> every voter for rewarding our candidates' activities by participating in the
> elections.
>
> Unfortunately, we only had a participation of around 17 % which seems to be
> the lowest participation since we record participation (2014). Many of the
> list subscribers here have had the possibility to vote, so I like to ask for
> explanations and possibilities how we can raise participation?
>
> The low amount of participation leaves me in particular wondering as this year
> we had 7 candidates, each of them with a short representation in out wiki [1],
> public hustings [2] and a reminder three days before the end of elections.
>
> However, former elections with only one (!) candidate and without reminders
> and no public hustings (2016 and 2014) have had more participation ...
>
> Why is this? Please help us to understand what FSFE can do to make the
> electiosn more appealing or raise participation?
> Or help us to understand what was the reason that this year there was such a
> low amount of participation?
>
> Thank you very much,
> Erik
>
> [1] https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/Election/FellowshipElection_2017
> [2] https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/Election/FellowshipElection_2017#Hustings
>
>

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