Subject: Digest for the period 4/25/2004 - 4/26/2004 Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 01:03:08 -0400 Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Re: Announcement of Northeast rep election ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ed Westemeier Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 16:25:07 -0400 Subject: Re: Announcement of Northeast rep election On 4/24/04, Mark Irwin said: > >Well I suspect that there has been a problem with the emails that have >gone out about the election. Yes, I would agree that there was a problem, but we have no idea exactly what it may have been. Some people probably had them caught in spam filters due to large numbers of addressees or other reasons. Others may have just missed them. We sent out a second round of emails, and hopefully, they were mostly received. We're actively looking into creating a mailing list with function on the website, using some sophisticated mailing list software, but that's still some time in the future. > >What fraction of the members living in the Northeast region have email >addresses registered with BJCP? For the ones that don't, will a >announcement go out by snail mail or by some other method? About two-thirds of the region's membership had emails in our database, and only about 5% of them bounced. The last time I checked, we had received votes from over 25% of the members, and that's actually a huge improvement over the old days when we sent out paper ballots and required them to be submitted by snail mail. In those days, we typically got votes from 10% or fewer of the members who received ballots. So I'm very pleased with the turnout so far, and I think we can have confidence that the election will represent the members. >the only place I've seen that the BJCP is only going to electronic >communication solely has been on this list, though I believe I did get a >letter saying that our annual summaries would no longer be mailed and that >we would need to use the web site in the future. You're right. This information was communicated to everyone in the (formerly annual) letter (on actual paper) sent out in July, 2002. Our website has been the primary communication method since then. The BJCP Board decided to formally implement the policy, and decided not to send out any more paper mail. > >The communication about replacing Bill Slack as Northeast rep I think has >been extremely poor. I never saw any announcements mentioning the >election was coming up and asking for nominations of candidates. A number >of people I have talked to have said the same thing. The information, including the exact information about which officers were up for re-election, how to submit nominations, and all the timetable and procedure information has been on our website for years. If members are truly interested in these affairs, they have been able to take action. Personally, I believe that we all like to be treated as responsible adults, and I don't see any need to spoon-feed people. I have never received an official reminder to vote for any government official (a far more important task), yet somehow I have always managed to cast an informed ballot. There is no difference here, at least in my mind. We really do appreciate everyone's comments, and I'm hopeful that it indicates a renewed interest by members. Frankly, the apathy shown in most regions in recent years has been pretty sad. Here's my suggestion, and I throw it out for discussion: Would you like to see the Board create a Nominating Committee that would start working to identify qualified candidates for office? How about giving them the mandate to find at least two good candidates for every elected position, starting six months before every election, so that members would have a choice between people who would each do a good job? Of course, the current system of nominating yourself by petition would still be available, increasing the pool of candidates still further. I'd like to see something like that. Maybe we could get the current Board to consider it? ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** Subject: Digest for the period 4/25/2004 - 4/26/2004 Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 01:03:08 -0400 Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Re: Announcement of Northeast rep election ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ed Westemeier Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 16:25:07 -0400 Subject: Re: Announcement of Northeast rep election On 4/24/04, Mark Irwin said: > >Well I suspect that there has been a problem with the emails that have >gone out about the election. Yes, I would agree that there was a problem, but we have no idea exactly what it may have been. Some people probably had them caught in spam filters due to large numbers of addressees or other reasons. Others may have just missed them. We sent out a second round of emails, and hopefully, they were mostly received. We're actively looking into creating a mailing list with function on the website, using some sophisticated mailing list software, but that's still some time in the future. > >What fraction of the members living in the Northeast region have email >addresses registered with BJCP? For the ones that don't, will a >announcement go out by snail mail or by some other method? About two-thirds of the region's membership had emails in our database, and only about 5% of them bounced. The last time I checked, we had received votes from over 25% of the members, and that's actually a huge improvement over the old days when we sent out paper ballots and required them to be submitted by snail mail. In those days, we typically got votes from 10% or fewer of the members who received ballots. So I'm very pleased with the turnout so far, and I think we can have confidence that the election will represent the members. >the only place I've seen that the BJCP is only going to electronic >communication solely has been on this list, though I believe I did get a >letter saying that our annual summaries would no longer be mailed and that >we would need to use the web site in the future. You're right. This information was communicated to everyone in the (formerly annual) letter (on actual paper) sent out in July, 2002. Our website has been the primary communication method since then. The BJCP Board decided to formally implement the policy, and decided not to send out any more paper mail. > >The communication about replacing Bill Slack as Northeast rep I think has >been extremely poor. I never saw any announcements mentioning the >election was coming up and asking for nominations of candidates. A number >of people I have talked to have said the same thing. The information, including the exact information about which officers were up for re-election, how to submit nominations, and all the timetable and procedure information has been on our website for years. If members are truly interested in these affairs, they have been able to take action. Personally, I believe that we all like to be treated as responsible adults, and I don't see any need to spoon-feed people. I have never received an official reminder to vote for any government official (a far more important task), yet somehow I have always managed to cast an informed ballot. There is no difference here, at least in my mind. We really do appreciate everyone's comments, and I'm hopeful that it indicates a renewed interest by members. Frankly, the apathy shown in most regions in recent years has been pretty sad. Here's my suggestion, and I throw it out for discussion: Would you like to see the Board create a Nominating Committee that would start working to identify qualified candidates for office? How about giving them the mandate to find at least two good candidates for every elected position, starting six months before every election, so that members would have a choice between people who would each do a good job? Of course, the current system of nominating yourself by petition would still be available, increasing the pool of candidates still further. I'd like to see something like that. Maybe we could get the current Board to consider it? ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * **********************************************************************