[ncc-services-wg] voting on AGM

At 11:16 06/09/2009 +0200, Axel Pawlik wrote:

>Hank, all,
>
>>and so died the entire discussion thread of online voting.  No one from 
>>RIPE NCC responded why electronic voting can't be implemented.
>
>It's not that it cannot be implemented. I said at the GM and later, that
>I'd prefer not to invest the ressources at this time to implement a perfect
>e-voting system, rather focussing on IPv4 run-out and 2007-01
>implementation support. Hence the idea to use postal ballots.
>
>However, during last week's board meeting, we discussed the topic
>again. We acknowledge that there is a strong interest from members
>to implement electronic voting through the LIR portal. I'm changing
>priorities to have a system ready for the General Meeting in May 2010.
>
>Currently we are finishing the supporting documents for the next
>General Meeting, to be posted this week, this will include a modification
>to the Articles of Association to allow for a streamlined voting process
>including for e-voting.

Been a year, but here I go again, beating at this dead horse.

The meeting next month allows proxy voting as detailed by Axel's email from 
yesterday:

>Proxy Voting
>-------------
>If your organisation is to be represented by a third party, not being an 
>authorised employee or director, please fill out the proxy form and send 
>it to us by 3 November 2010. Any proxy sent to us after this date will not 
>be valid. The proxy form is available to download here:
>http://www.ripe.net/membership/gm/gm-november2010/proxy.html

If you go thru the effort of doing the proxy "thing", you will find that 
one cannot submit a scanned proxy form by email, rather one has to use a 
fax machine or postal mail.  In this day and age, this just strikes me as 
ridiculous.

But now back to e-voting.  In the Articles:
http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/articles-association.html
section 17.1:
17.1 In addition to the possibility of the members to physically attend the 
meeting, the Executive Board may decide to open the possibility for the 
Members to attend the General Meeting through electronic means at a remote 
location and to vote through electronic means from a remote location. In 
addition the Executive Board may decide to open the possibility for the 
Members to electronically participate in deliberation at the General 
Meeting. The Executive Board shall regulate the (technical) procedure and 
the requirements for electronic attendance, voting and/or deliberation. The 
right to vote through electronic means shall only apply to Executive Board 
member elections.

1) Electronic voting for just executive board members is ridiculous as 
well.  The more pressing issues are with charging schemes and other 
issues.  Glad to see that this will be slightly changed as follows:
http://www.ripe.net/membership/gm/gm-november2010/documents/changes-articles-association.html
But it is limited to what the Executive Board decides should be voted 
upon.  I think whatever is voted upon in person should be allowed to be 
voted upon electronically w/o the EB having to get involved.

2) Last time electronic voting was used, one *had* to vote within a 15 
minute window of opportunity.  If you missed it, then you couldn't vote.

I own or have owned numerous stocks and they allow electronic voting not 
just for the BoD but for many other issues as well.  And one can vote for a 
few weeks before the general membership meeting.  Only an organization that 
really doesn't want electronic voting would implement a 15 minute window to 
vote.

As of today, we have 32 voting members attending out of how many LIRs - 
5000?  Does that make for democracy?  I highly doubt it.

Regards,
-Hank


>Hope this helps,
>
>Axel