Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Flawed HESA Constitutional vote

I just tried -- unsuccessfully -- to vote on the proposed constitutional amendments to the HESA constitution. Here're the problems:

1) I was never sent a ballot automatically (and yes, I did check my bulk mail folders on both my Yahoo and FAS email accounts).

2) I requested a new ballot on the evening of April 24. I wasn't sent a new ballot until the morning of April 26, 12 hours before voting closed.

The result? I didn't check my email all day, and missed the deadline by about an hour. Too bad, I really wanted to vote.

Since the vote is over, I'll add my two cents here: While obviously a lot of thought has gone into the proposed changes, and the purpose of the amendments are to implement increased accountability and other noble aims, I would have voted "no." The reason relates to the increase in the number of HESA officers and participants (at-large positions, etc.). I participate in lots of meetings, and I've found that putting more people into the mix adds to bureaucracy and invariably hinders decision making. Additionally, seeing that HESA already has difficulty fielding candidates for existing positions, where are these additional warm bodies supposed to come from?

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