ACS Board Elections

Hey All,
While Hilary and Barack duke it out on the national stage, its about that time of year to have some mud-slingin' election adventures of our own here at CLS. Here's some information from 3L and ACS-election Czarina, Zahra Egal:

ACS Election Procedures 2008

1. All members of ACS National who will be 2L or 3L students in the following academic year are eligible both to vote and to run for positions on the Columbia ACS Board. Candidates must be registered as members of National by the time candidates’ statements are due (April 4).
2. The board positions to be filled by election are as follows:
1. President
2. Vice President
3. Events Chair
4. External Relations Chair
5. Finance Chair
6. Media Chair
7. 3L Representatives (2)
3. Candidates may run for one or more positions. For each position for which they are running, candidates should write a one paragraph statement expressing why they are running for that position. There will be no meeting at which candidates present themselves.
4. Candidates must also rank their preferences for each position for which they are running—which position is their first choice, which their second, and so on.. This information will be used if a candidate receives the most eligible votes for more than one position (see Step 14, below).
5. Candidate statements are due by 5:00pm, Friday, April 4. These should be emailed to zahra.egal@gmail.com. Candidates whose statements arrive after this deadline will not be placed on the ballot and will not have their statements posted.
6. The 3L board members will prepare a list of candidates and candidate statements. This information will be available on the ACS blog, and a link to the information will be emailed to all eligible voters. Additionally, candidate statements will be posted on our bulletin board on the first floor of JG.
7. Elections will occur over four days, during lunchtime (12:30–1:30), from Tuesday April 8, to Thursday, April 10 Elections will occur at a table in the hall of JG.
8. The volunteers at the election table will have a list of all eligible voters, the candidate statements, and ballots.
9. Non-members can also join at the election table and thus become eligible voters.
10. Ballots will list alphabetically the candidates for each position. To vote, voters will rank their preference for each candidate for each position. Voters must rank each candidate, and cannot put the same ranking for more than one candidate.
11. The volunteers at the election table will accept completed ballots from eligible voters and keep track of those who have voted. (Each voter may fill out only one ballot.)
12. After lunch on Thursday, the 3L board members will tally the votes for positions in the following order (though candidate’s preferences will also be taken into account, see Step 14 below:
1. President
2. Vice President
3. Events Chair
4. External Relations Chair
5. Finance Chair
6. Media Chair
7. 3L Representatives (2)
13. In the case of a tie for a position, ballots that ranked neither candidate as the top available choice will be counted as a vote for whichever of the top two candidates is ranked more highly. Example:
1. A ballot ranks the preferences for President as follows: Monique is first, Ned is second, Ophelia is third.
2. On the initial counting, Ned and Ophelia are tied for the position because each is ranked more highly than any other eligible candidate, except each other.
3. The ballot will then count as a vote for Ned.
14. If at any time a candidate has the most votes for more than one position, the candidate will be elected to the position he or she has ranked more highly as a personal preference. Example:
1. Roger has run for both Vice President and for Media Chair and for no other positions. He has ranked Media Chair as his first choice and Vice President as his second.
2. When the votes for Vice President are tallied, Roger has the most votes for both Vice President and for Media Chair.
3. Roger will be elected Media Chair.
15. The results will be announced over email and on the blog by the 3L board members.
16. In the event that any of the elected positions are not filled after the election, the sitting board member will continue to fill that position until the new board meets first and resolves the problem.

Media Chair Tech Specs

The primary responsibility of the Media Chair is to manage and promote the online presence of Columbia ACS, first and foremost our blog, and to work toward making that presence robust and supplementary of our on-campus activities. In addition to managing our group’s online presence from a content perspective, you are the primary technical resource for the group.
The technical skills required to be an effective media chair are minimal. Since you’ll likely choose 1 or 2 assistant media chairs next year, you personally may not need all these skills.

Using HTML…

You Feel Generally Comfortable With Basic HTML: Unless the board decides that a significant redesign of the blog or website is in order, you’re not going to have to display a real mastery of HTML. Most of your duties will be executed using the Google application, Blogger, that is extremely user-friendly and requires the a very general knowledge of HTML. However, you should expect to be the go-to person for technical matters with the blog and the website. Maintaining both these assets demands fluency with rudimentary HTML.

Using SFTP…

You Can Figure Out How to Use an Graphical FTP Program: To upload and move files around on Columbia’s system, you’ll need to use a program that supports SFTP (like WinSCP). Nothing too technical here, and you’ll receive instructions from the outgoing media chair on how this works.