The Electoral Reform Society and the CRT elections

[Ian Mac]

My experience of the ERS running this election has not fill me with confidence, so far, I only decided to stand at the last minute, when I worked out I didn't want to support for any of the other nominations. I produced my video and words in a total rush, all compounded by personal commitments (going on Holiday with the extended family). it made it a real panic job and it shows! I then discovered that the 48hrs till your details appear was in fact 2 working days, and that meant that although my details were filled on the morning of the last Friday, they did not appear on the ERS website till the last Tuesday, late in the morning. Then the nominations also have a delay before they appear, of several hours, which meant that even though I had had enough people telling me they had nominated me, they did not appear on the website, causing much hassle from the other half, as I spent holiday time ringing round whipping in more nominations, and ringing up the ERS to discover what was happening. Those that eventually appeared, did not appear in the order that people voted, assuming that voting and nominating was an atom action,i.e. they did one and immediately did the other, but given the delay in the emails was of the order of 30mins I would have thought the order I saw would have been approximately correct, not wildly different as is the case. This does cause me to worry if those that thought they were nominating me are in fact disenfranchised as well. (reminder to self - check if they have voted or are indeed eligable)

Then there is the problem of communicating with the electorate, there is no electoral role, so all the volunteers are only able to see my original video, and I can not directly canvas them. Only those details submitted for nomination can go forwards, this in my view is not good. I originally assumed I would get the opportunity to re-do my video and it was only going to be used to get the required nominations not the votes as well. No chance to add an audio monologue either, probably saved a few people from a fate worse than Vogan poetry!
Hay ho such is life, something else to attempt to improve, beside getting the disenfranchised in to vote.

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Cheers Ian Mac

Vote just for Ian McCarthy in the Volunteer constituency C&RT Council elections.

 

[churchward]

You seem to be blaming others for your lack preparedness? Sorry if I have got the wrong end of the stick but that is how it struck me reading your OP.

 

Did you not study the terms and conditions etc of the election process?

 

Personally I do not want the people standing knowing how to contact me directly.

 

Use a facebook or similar facility to help get your viewpoint across.

[jenlyn]

To be honest, the whole exercise is becoming a bit of a non event.

For a start, it's internet based, so disenfranchise's those with no access to internet. Then, I don't know about others, but the emails sent to me all went to my spam box.

It's all becoming a bit of an amateur effort, and how much is it costing?

CRT I suspect are only going through the whole process under duress.

[Ian Mac]

You seem to be blaming others for your lack preparedness? Sorry if I have got the wrong end of the stick but that is how it struck me reading your OP.

 

Did you not study the terms and conditions etc of the election process?

 

Personally I do not want the people standing knowing how to contact me directly.

 

Use a facebook or similar facility to help get your viewpoint across.

Excused , wrong end of the piece of wood, as I attempted to state, I only decided to stand at the last minute, so there wasn't ages to prepare, in fact very little time. The T's&C's were not totally clear on what was available to the candidates or when, and the FAQ wasn't much use either. 48hrs was an odd way of stating 2 working days which is what they vaugley meant every other working day at about dinner time would have been nearer the mark. As to the nominations and there logging that was totally in the hands of the ERS and was observed to not happen as I thought it should.

 

I agree about the email adresses, in my hands it may be a bad idea, however for political elections the vast majority of voters can be reached, unless they have withdrawn there name from the public list, you and I can find there names and addresses, it just takes a trip to the library and a pen and paper which is how the political parties do it. But there are other ways which are paid for by the goverment, party political broadcast for one, which emable those standing to get their message across. Maybe we should be able to send an email out via the CRT list by ERS sending it as they know who can vote, we as candidates could choose when to send it.

 

The problem with FB and Twitter is the short amount of space practically available. Other things like NBW which is like a newsparer, do I really want to appear on there? All publicity is good publicity?

 

Having said all this I believe the Director of Governance at C&RT is already on the case, and is investigating what improvement can be made to the process. One possible option is to combine the Friends and Volunteer constitutes, having two candidates elected, We will have to wait and see what is forth coming once the elections are over.

To be honest, the whole exercise is becoming a bit of a non event.

For a start, it's internet based, so disenfranchise's those with no access to internet. Then, I don't know about others, but the emails sent to me all went to my spam box.

It's all becoming a bit of an amateur effort, and how much is it costing?

CRT I suspect are only going through the whole process under duress.

 

 

C&RT are doing elections because the Charity Commisioners(CC) require them to do so, in fact I have heard that they may not be doing enough in the eyes of the CC. I beleive a high turnout will help C&RT to manage the expectations of the CC, although a low one would be more in line with other large institutions, some of whom "bribe" people into voting with offers of bun fights, and dividend, excetra!

 

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Cheers Ian Mac

Vote just for Ian McCarthy in the Volunteer constituency C&RT Council elections.

[jenlyn]

Within months of the trust being formed, one of the trustees stated "we don't need the charity status financially, though the tax concessions will be useful. We have enough income to manage the canals without relying on giving".

 

I can see the trust rebranding, and moving away from the charity chains that they feel can hinder and restrain them.

The trust is being gently manoeuvred away from what some see as constraints.

There is no real effort to draw in charitable funding. That's obvious from the size of the department given the responsibility.

[Tuscan]

Governance certainly seems to be a bit of a problem for CRT, the Partnerships hold the power from the Council perspective. It would be interesting to total up the number of partnership and council members and then see what percentage of them are subject to the election process.

[roggie]

11 places for Partnership chairs (see https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us/our-structure/the-council).As for how the council is made up:-

"The Council is made up of 40 nominated, co-opted or elected members as well as the chairs of the waterway partnerships. Together they reflect the wide appeal of the waterways – from boating and angling through to walking and conservation. The council is responsible for the appointment of Trustees, helps to shape policies and provides guidance and perspective to them." from https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us/our-structure/the-council/trust-council-elections-2015

 

A rather large group of people, not many elected.

[Laurence Hogg]

Within months of the trust being formed, one of the trustees stated "we don't need the charity status financially, though the tax concessions will be useful. We have enough income to manage the canals without relying on giving".

 

I can see the trust rebranding, and moving away from the charity chains that they feel can hinder and restrain them.

The trust is being gently manoeuvred away from what some see as constraints.

There is no real effort to draw in charitable funding. That's obvious from the size of the department given the responsibility.

Your statement is spot on in my view too. It is a farce that needs rebranding and the final bits of deadwood removed. I for one wouldn't trust the head of governance to govern anything, the whole election process is a farce.

[Allan(nb Albert)]

Governance certainly seems to be a bit of a problem for CRT, the Partnerships hold the power from the Council perspective. It would be interesting to total up the number of partnership and council members and then see what percentage of them are subject to the election process.

Council has 35-40 members with just 9 seats capable of election. As CaRT are now saying that they will co-opt to one of seats instead of allowing a candidate to stand unopposed or rerunning the election process the actual figure is just 8.

 

So, after well over three years, the number of council members subject to the election process may be as low as 20%.

 

Not really an ideal situation for a body which is meant to have hire and fire responsibilities over CaRT's trustees ...

[jenlyn]

It now seems if you ring ers, they are stating that CRT have not given them a complete list of all email addresses for those eligible to vote.

CRT evidently are aware, and attempting to sort it.

(gets better by the day) lol

After all, they have had 4 years to sort any ripples from last time.

[Allan(nb Albert)]

Would that be another clerical error then?

[StarUKKiwi]

I think the idea of running an election purely online flawed, unless the majority of the electorate are online and I cannot find any evidence to suggest this is the case. Numerous instances of email not received, although you can phone to request details.

 

Personally, I found the process of standing confusing - after the initial Q&A said you had 250 words; in fact this was 150 words and I could neither upload photo nor video.

 

However, I did set up a Facebook page and I intend to use it to report back in the future and for people to contact me through that - Stella Ridgway - Boater on Facebook. The advantage of this is that you can view the page and contact me even if you don't use FB. there is also here as well and I am @starukkiwi on Twitter.

[Allan(nb Albert)]

I think the idea of running an election purely online flawed, unless the majority of the electorate are online and I cannot find any evidence to suggest this is the case. Numerous instances of email not received, although you can phone to request details.

 

Personally, I found the process of standing confusing - after the initial Q&A said you had 250 words; in fact this was 150 words and I could neither upload photo nor video.

 

However, I did set up a Facebook page and I intend to use it to report back in the future and for people to contact me through that - Stella Ridgway - Boater on Facebook. The advantage of this is that you can view the page and contact me even if you don't use FB. there is also here as well and I am @starukkiwi on Twitter.

Last time round, you were able to vote by post, online or by telephone.

 

Just over 7,500 voted with just over 5,000 of those votes cast by post.