Hallo everyone, The team in charge of overlooking the election process managed to meet yesterday for the first time. The team is composed of Branton, Cliff and I, and the meet-up was aimed at brainstorming on how the upcoming election will be conducted and to plan for all the activities that will precede the actual election. Generally, we aim at having a free and fair election process that will also be educative and eventful. Hence, we call for all members to kindly come out and support this activity in a positive manner. The different activities that we agreed on and the dates we expect them to be performed are stated below:
1. *Declaration of intention.* This serves as an official announcement by a member to contest for the position of board member of WMKE. This can be done on our official mailing list, as most of you have done, and the last date for this activity will be on Wednesday, 21st March 2012 by 1159hours. 2. *Registration of contestants.* This will involve the determination of whether an applicant is eligible to contest for the position of a board member of WMKE as per the Chapter's Constitution or any other rules agreed upon by the members. This is fully the responsibility of the electoral team and the results are to be released on Saturday, 24th March 2012 between noon and 1159hours. 3. *Setup of the contestants bio-page.* A bio page on the wiki will be setup for the purpose of giving all the contestants an opportunity to wikify their plea to the members on why they are best suited for the job. This will be coordinated by the electoral team and the bio-page on the wiki will be setup on Friday, 23rd March 2012 by 1159hours. 4. *Bio posting by the qualified contestants. *All the contestants that qualify to contest will be expected to post their bio's on the developed wiki (Number 3) by Sunday, 25th March 2012 at 1159hours. Note that a qualified contestant has 24 hours to complete this task or be disqualified. 5. *Posting of Questions to the contestants. *In order for us to have a Question and Answers (Q&A) session online, questions will be sent to the to all qualified contestants by e-mail. The electoral team will then receive the various responses from the qualified contestants (PRIVATELY), after which the team will wikify them depending on the contestants turn to respond to the views and opinions of the members. This posting will be done on Sunday, 25th March 2012 by 1159hours. 6. *Response to questions asked by the contestants. *The contestants are expected to respond to the questions asked on Monday, 26th by 1800hours. They will send this responses to the electoral team privately and NOT on our usual mailing list. This is aimed at ensuring the Q&A sessions are conducted in an orderly manner and equal time will be availed to all contestants to interact with the members. 7. *Q&A sessions.* This will involve the posting of the responses provided by the contestants on the wiki by the electoral team, and an eventual discussion by the members and contestants. Each member will have specific time to interact with the members through the setup wiki. This will be conducted from Tuesday, 27th March to Thursday 29th March 2012. 8. *Open Day.* This will be on Friday, 30th and contestants will be allowed to post openly in our mailing list and involve members in discussions. A Skype chat will be chaired by the electoral team later in the day to try and get the contestants to interact with the members. 9. *Election Day. *This will be on Saturday, 31st March 2012 at a time and venue that will be communicated by the electoral team by Wednesday, 28th March 2012 latest 1600hours.
Note that the following were agreed upon by the team on Yesterdays meeting as well.
- This election will see the selection of five members of WMKE, by secret ballot, to the board of the Kenyan Chapter of Wikimedia by the voting members, and after which the selected five will decide on who will occupy the 5 positions defined by The Constitution. - The basis of determining those members eligible to contest or vote in this election will be based on the rules determined and agreed upon by the members in the meeting held at The Public Service Club on Saturday, 11th February 2012. - Voting by proxy will be available as per The Constitution. The electoral team will inform all members on how this will be conducted once we finish up on the logistics of its execution. - The team calls for members to come out and participate in this activity with utmost fairness and integrity. - Any queries or opinions about the election are greatly encouraged but the electoral team request that such be communicated privately to any/ all of the team members privately first. However, you are required to cc Asaf on such communications for the purpose of openness and fairness. We will be glad to try and provide solutions to any questions and challenges as we guide each other on undertaking this activity.
From the electoral team.
Regards,