2. Voting Member Sign-in

[Lyle Craver]

A word of explanation to new Voting Members - since the software does not have an automatic attendance counter feature we record who has attended the meeting by having members 'vote' for one of the options in the poll above.

It does not matter which option you choose - voting for ANY of the options (the software does not allow a poll with only one option) marks you as in attendance.

We try to keep the poll questions light and sometimes whimsical - it is not the intention to use the answers to any of the questions asked in the sign-in poll for gauging VM opinion on an issue. VM Feedback on future meeting polls is definitely welcome!

[Fred McKim]

You can't click on the votes, to check attendance at this meeting like you can at the Outgoing meeting. Lyle or Chris can you investigate or else post a list of those who have joined the meeting.

[Lyle Craver]

Hmmm. I must have failed to check a particular flag when setting it up. Unfortunately you don't get a chance to edit a poll once created (other than to close it of course).

However as of right now it's:

Something else? Aris Marghetis Don Parakin Halldor P. Palsson Ilia Bluvshtein Jose Fernandez Triana Mark S. Dutton, I.A. Michael Lo Nikolay Noritsyn Stephen Wright Victoria Jung-Doknjas Vladimir Drkulec
Suspension of the 2020 Candidates Tournament Christina Tao Fred McKim Lloyd Lombard Michael Barron Patrick McDonald Richard Bérubé Roger Langen
Legends of Chess (July 21-Aug 5) Christopher Field Ken Einarsson
the 2020 Online Chess Olympiad Les Bunning Paul Leblanc

[Mahmud Hassain]

Hi Lyle,
Thank you for chairing this election and for your hard work.
Would it be possible for you to share who voted and who did not. And, the contacts of the governors.
Thank you
Mahmud

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Hi Lyle,
Thank you for chairing this election and for your hard work.
Would it be possible for you to share who voted and who did not. And, the contacts of the governors.
Thank you
Mahmud

That would be highly improper.

[Mahmud Hassain]

You can't click on the votes, to check attendance at this meeting like you can at the Outgoing meeting. Lyle or Chris can you investigate or else post a list of those who have joined the meeting.

Hi again,
Following on Fred's post, I think we should be provided with the names of the governors who attended this meeting.
Thank you for your help!
Mahmud

[Mahmud Hassain]

That would be highly improper.

That is why I posted another one.

[Lyle Craver]

I keep Voting Member personal information (required for verifying contact info including e-mails) in a spreadsheet. While you can of course sort a spreadsheet in any desired sequence I go alphabetically by province then alphabetically within a single province.

At the close of each meeting I update the spreadsheet to indicate who was signed in to the spreadsheet.

The policy of the CFC is that ALL votes are public with the major exception of votes concerning identifiable individuals. This includes but is not limited to elections. While I and Chris Mallon (chief Forum Administrator) can go into the Forum Control Panel and see who voted and how as a matter of policy we don't while the poll is open. Thus at the present time, I know as much about the vote as each of you (which right now is limited to how many have voted but not how many for each candidate or option)

My primary concern is that the ballot be fair and that the voting question be clear. On motions NOT involving individuals I am regularly asked for help by Voting Members with motions they would like to put. The sort of help I give is more procedural and phrasing the motion - I never attempt to persuade someone to my way of thinking. In my time as Secretary I have told VMs privately "I personally think this is a bad idea but if you want to forward this motion here's how you do it..." - my role is to facilitate not to dictate. On one occasion an unauthorized person was able to cast a vote due to incorrect forum permissions on his account - we picked it up and cancelled his ballot and informed the meeting what had happened.

Please note that I have edited both the announcements message to this forum and the agenda thread to announce in big red lettering that the "VOTING BOOTH" elections close at 1800 ET Saturday Aug 22 (tomorrow)

[Fred McKim]

That is why I posted another one.

I will try to get Lyle to post a list of all of the VM's who joined the meeting before the meeting is over. I think there were another 20 or so after the first list. It looks like at least 90% of the participating VM's voted. The complete list of VM's has not been published in one place for a number of years. Vlad can best explain why, but it was to do with the NFP act.

[Aris Marghetis]

I will try to get Lyle to post a list of all of the VM's who joined the meeting before the meeting is over. I think there were another 20 or so after the first list. It looks like at least 90% of the participating VM's voted. The complete list of VM's has not been published in one place for a number of years. Vlad can best explain why, but it was to do with the NFP act.

Fred, that seems like a high percentage, which I think is awesome!

(if I'm incorrect vs. historically, please tell me to edit this post lol)

[Fred McKim]

Fred, that seems like a high percentage, which I think is awesome!

(if I'm incorrect vs. historically, please tell me to edit this post lol)

Well, I think that most of the VM's who attend the meeting will vote, especially this year when there is a hot race for President. What is more surprising is that we have 47 VM's attending the meeting, compared to last year's number, which I think was 27 (I just looked it up, but didn't write it down - so testing my short term memory).

Short term memory not so good .... 29.

[Aris Marghetis]

Well, I think that most of the VM's who attend the meeting will vote, especially this year when there is a hot race for President. What is more surprising is that we have 47 VM's attending the meeting, compared to last year's number, which I think was 27 (I just looked it up, but didn't write it down - so testing my short term memory).

Short term memory not so good .... 29.

Well that's great!! I'm proud of our big turnout!!

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Its even better than you think. Some people went straight to the vote and didn't sign in.

[Lyle Craver]

Just a note - I don't normally allow such numbers of postings in this thread but have been paying close attention and all have been respectful and non-partisan so have let it go.

I too agree that the high percentage of Assembly members signed into the meeting (and voting) is a very good thing and a very pleasant surprise given that the last 4-5 months have been a bit of a downer for most of us especially since we've not had the opportunity of taking out our frustrations over the board. (Somehow for me at least server play does not provide the same degree of calming particularly when you have the sort of opponent who thinks just letting the time run out when in a losing position is ok!)

Several explanations as to why the high turnout and voting turnout but not my place to opine!

=> Reminder - polls close at 1800 ET today.

[Lyle Craver]

As I've said privately 20 years ago the complete list of Governors (as VMs were known then) were published in the Chess Canada Bulletin. Not sure how that came to be ended but I'd guess the then editors figured it wasn't a good use of an entire page to the average reader. I have no issue with publishing the list though given the level of spam I personally get am not so great on publishing e-mails etc in a way easily harvestable. This is part of the price one pays for having both an uncommon first name and uncommon last name and being involved in multiple activities that are active on the Net one supposes. (For instance a Google search on "Lyle" "Craver" and "Vancouver" will give several pages of hits - given my spam I would guess the bad guys do rather better than Google!)

Where I draw the line is publishing voting records which is usually fine after the meeting through not during polling. The policy of the CFC is that all votes where the motion doesn't involve individuals are public. ("doesn't involve individuals" includes more than just elections) I don't believe the CFC has a specific rule in the Handbook on this but it's been our policy long before I first became a Governor (early 90s) much less an Executive member. The fact that members can see as much as they can DURING the vote says more about the vBulletin forum software than about CFC policy.

[Fred McKim]

Its even better than you think. Some people went straight to the vote and didn't sign in.

Now that I don't agree with. Some people might wonder how you know that. If you can see who voted, then that information should be public.

[Lyle Craver]

Its even better than you think. Some people went straight to the vote and didn't sign in.

Oh oh - that means I have work to do since that's not SUPPOSED to be possible - I thought that was supposed to give an error message. In the control panel there is a name attached to every vote and ONLY those with names attached are counted. Thus if you are one who did this, it doesn't count.

The easiest way to determine whether or not your vote was counted is to go to the voting thread and see whether you get the polling box or the results of polling box. If you get asked the vote question then it means vBulletin does not have a vote recorded for you and wants you to vote!. I noticed this when signing on this morning and found I got the 'poll question' screen on one of the voting booth threads.

[Lyle Craver]

On reflection, I think what Vlad means is that the VM signed in with usercode and password but didn't go to the sign-in "vote". If that's what he means I would have to check the list of sign-ins as I do not think the software allows preventing posting if one does not participate in a given thread (e.g. the sign-in thread) In the old days at in-person Governor meetings it used to be that a sign-in clipboard was passed around. Since it generally took time for the clipboard to circulate the chair often recognized people who hadn't yet had the opportunity to sign in. Ancient history now I know....

[Fred McKim]

As I've said privately 20 years ago the complete list of Governors (as VMs were known then) were published in the Chess Canada Bulletin. Not sure how that came to be ended but I'd guess the then editors figured it wasn't a good use of an entire page to the average reader. I have no issue with publishing the list though given the level of spam I personally get am not so great on publishing e-mails etc in a way easily harvestable.



I think the complete list of Governors was published on the CFC web site, until the NFP act. As I mentioned before, we have been directed not to share this list. I think in future years if Candidates for CFC positions would like e-mail sent out to the VM's, it should all be sent to you for mass distribution at a set time (ie day 2 of the AGM or maybe 3 days prior to the AGM).

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Now that I don't agree with. Some people might wonder how you know that. If you can see who voted, then that information should be public.


I talked through one voting member on the procedure to vote on the phone which he had trouble with because of the size of the display. On my phone you can zoom in and out but on some you can't. He voted. I will tell you at 6 pm how I know he didn't sign in.

[Lyle Craver]

I haven't got time to do a year by year set of stats but normally anything over 70% login is extremely good. Can't remember the total count off the top of my head but it's low 50s