COMensarations
Friday, November 11, 2005
Tempests, Teapots and Denver Mensa — 051111
The Denver Mensa kerfuffle continues.
And, as always, the story grows in the telling.
Well. It WAS a three way race for the position of LocSec; Doug Smith, Mario De Benedittis and Sarah Welborn.
But, yesterday, Sarah dropped out of the race.
Not so much of a problem, but it seems that some people who voted for Sarah had already mailed in their ballots; well ahead of the deadline. Now they want to vote for someone other than Sarah.
Mario thinks that anyone who has already voted should not be allowed to change their ballot.
Doug reports that there is nothing in the by-laws that addresses this situation. He thinks that being so, the Election Committee should decide the issue.
His statement, if correct—I haven’t reviewed the by-laws since that long reading of them at an ExComm meeting in 2002—makes good sense to me. I don’t recall there being anything in there that deals with the situation either; if they had not been changed. There is a mechanism that the Election Committee could establish to deal with this sort of situation. And the mechanism could be incorporated into the by-laws.
Who knew that being on the Election Committee could be so ‘interesting’?
What I’m intrigued with is the difference in approach that the two candidates for LocSec are espousing. One is arbitrary. The other is (1) working within the system, i.e., observing the Rule of Law, and (2) flexible, allowing the system to do what it is supposed to do.
That IS significant and, I think, indicative of how they would manage the chapter’s business. Considering that participation is strictly voluntary and most of us are something in the way of being totally free thinkers and considerably independent, the decision of who is going to be LocSec could have serious ramifications on the next years activities.
Next entry: And the Beat[ing] Goes On — 051111 Previous entry: Speech Meet: Another Perspective-
I have found a third approach: when in doubt, punt(i.e., foist it off to
a so-called “higher authority"). I cc’ed a copy of our discussion of the
election issues to our Regional Vice-chair and our National Office, in hopes
that someone will be able to enlighten us as to the usual rule in this
situation. Of course, they may simply ignore us, as they apparently did after
our “Publicity Officer” decided to air all our bylaws and elections issues
through a long series of emails copied to them. Hopefully, we are not already
on their “kill” lists, but this is a legitimate issue and one which should be
addressed now. If they punt it back, then we can deal with it with no fear of
possible sanctions.Gary Shapiro
on 11/11 at 09:49 AM -
TO: Gary Shapiro
RE: Good IdeaAsking the RVC and AMC for guidance is excellent. And they may well either ignore and pass the ball back to the Election Committee. But double-checking higher headquarters for any advice works too.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
on 11/11 at 10:26 AM -
Thanks for the good comments, Chuck. I must admit that this election has
left me in a bit of a quandary (and don’t ask if that is a new or used
quandary). I was going to vote for Sarah myself. Mario is acually a nice
person in person, but his online persona does come out as something of a
two-bit dictator, and I can’t always tell which is the real Mario, although
I do like to believe the best of a person. Doug, on the other hand, has not
done a great deal as LocSec, and I won’t even go into the Freudian
implications of the huge, dark signature with the double exclamation points.
In addition, the nastiness of the whole campaign on both sides has turned me
off. For goodness sakes, guys, you’re running for Local Secretary of Denver
Mensa, not President of the United States. Lighten up, give us positive
reasons for voting for you, and please show some civility. We are supposed
to be the top 2% of the world in intelligence, and you’re both acting like a
couple of apes.on 11/11 at 01:47 PM -
TO: Garameth
RE: Quandries R Us“I must admit that this election has left me in a bit of a quandary....”—Garameth
Same quandry we ALL seem to find ourselves in at every election-opportunity. Look upon it as another of the proverbial ‘retests’....and smile....
RE: Not the Freaking US Government
“For goodness sakes, guys, you’re running for Local Secretary of Denver Mensa, not President of the United States. Lighten up, give us positive reasons for voting for you, and please show some civility.”—Garameth
Well...whereas the LocSec does not have the ability to wield nuclear weapons, of the physical form, I’ve seen, in the past, how a LocSec can wield such of the psychological form. Think about ‘97....
...Here I was, trying to mend fences vis-a-vis the Holiday Party I was organizing and got blasted for my efforts. Seriously, the people that ran the phone messaging service I subscribed to, upon hearing the voice message left me, were wondering if they should call the DPD.
People get REALLY serious over what most rational people would consider the more trivial thinks.
My suggestion is that no one get overwrought about this. Nobody SHOULD die. But, for some silly reason, a lot of people don’t listen to me....
Regards,
Chuck(le)
on 11/12 at 02:40 PM