X-Message-Number: 30318 Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:50:54 -0800 (PST) From: david pizer <> Subject: Plan for member elections HOW THE MEMBERS MIGHT ELECT THE DIRECTORS AND SOME POSSIBLE SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO BUILD IN PROTECTIONS IN THE SYSTEM WHERE THE MEMBERS ELECT THE DIRECTORS. (here are some beginning ideas on how to build in protections. I am sure the membership can think of a lot more.) There should be four classes at Alcor: Directors (who run Alcor as they do now) Advisers (who advise and are training to be directors) Voting suspension members of 2 years membership who will vote for advisers and directors each year. Non-voting suspension members who have not yet been members for 2 consecutive years. DIRECTORS 1. Directors will be elected from the existing pool of advisers. Anyone who has been an elected adviser for two years before the date of the annual election for the director's office they are seeking can announce his desire to be a candidate. 2. The Members will elect the directors (see requirements for members to be able to vote below) from the pool of qualified advisers who have asked to be a candidate and from the pool of existing directors who want to stand for re-election. We need to adopt rules how the elections will be run. 3. There should be a method for removing (and replacing) directors before the next election if the membership so desires. ADVISERS 1. To be a candidate for adviser a person must be an Alcor suspension member for 3 consecutive years. 2. The pool of advisers can be up to 5% of the total amount of Alcor suspension members as figured 60 days before the election for advisers. 3. Any person who wants to be an adviser announces that intention 30 days before the election and the qualified members then vote. 4. At the monthly board meetings or special meetings, when motions were to be voted on by the directors, first the advisers would vote on the motion. A roll call vote would be taken and each adviser's vote would be recorded. So a record of how each adviser had voted would be made. Advisers who cannot attend the meeting in person will vote by computer hookup or telephone. This record would be published in the Alcor monthly magazine that goes to the members and a two-year record would be available at election time when an Adviser ran for a director's position. So we would have at least a 2 year record of how advisers felt about various matters that had come before the Alcor board. WHO CAN VOTE FOR ELECTORS AND/OR ADVISERS 1. Any person that has been an Alcor member for 2 or more years can vote for advisers and directors. HOW TO MANAGE THE EXTRA WORK, TRAIN THE ADVISERS, AND INFORM THE MEMBERS HOW CANDIDATES FOR THE BOARD FEEL ON ISSUES. Once the members have the vote, and so the members are now feeling more a part of Alcor, they will become much active. There will be many of them at board meetings and they will want to have their input considered, and debated. This is going to take a lot more time so we need a plan like they have at some city and county governments. At some county governments there are two groups that have to do with the making of laws and rules and granting variances ect. Here is a similar way Alcor could do it. Whenever Alcor was considering doing something major they would make an announcement to the members. There would be two monthly meetings one by a special group of the advisers selected by the advisers each month to hear issues and one by the directors. At the advisers meeting the whole group of advisers would select a small group of their members to sit on the hearing board of the advisers meeting. This group could be changed each month giving all the advisers a chance to sit and interact with the members. At these meetings the pending issues would be discussed. Members would be allowed to have input. They could show up at the advisers meeting and be allowed to talk on a subject for a certain amount of time (say 5 to 15 minutes depending on the importance of the subject -- but each member would have the same amount of time to make his case). Or, the interested member could send in a written opinion and have it read into the minutes. After the public portion of the Planning Advisers' meeting the floor would be closed and the Planning Advisers would then discuss the issues and then vote. Their vote would be recorded and passed on to the board as a recommendation for or against each item. At the regular board meetings, the members might have a limited amount of time to speak for of against each matter and then the board members would discuss it and then they would vote. This plan is in the early discussion phase. We all need to share our ideas and see if we can come up with safeguards and ways to make this work. David ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=30318