theljstaff (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} theljstaff) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/newsinfo.gif){kind=small} news,@ 2009-06-10 14:47:00 |
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| Entry tags: | advisory board elections |
Advisory Board Election Announcement
Advisory Board Elections
Calling all potential candidates—nominations for user representatives to the LJ Advisory Board open next week! As we announced last month, we're holding Advisory Board elections this month and we want you to take part.
Nominations for user representatives begin on Monday, June 15, 2009, and close on Friday, June 19, 2009. All the election action—including the nomination process—will take place in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
lj_election_en and lj_election_ru. But don't worry, we'll announce all election happenings in news, so even if you’re not watching the two election communities, you'll still be able to participate and know what is going on.
Nominations
As stated above, nominations open on Monday, June 15, 2009, at 9:00 a.m. PDT and MSD, and close on Friday, June 19, 2009, at 4:30 p.m. PDT and MSD. We will post again in news on the 15th so that as many users as possible are aware of events.
Ready to declare your candidacy? This is how the nomination process works:
Users may only nominate themselves; no third-party nominations will be accepted. To nominate yourself, join the election community (lj_election_ru for Cyrillic-language users and lj_election_en for all other users) and make a post any time during the nomination period. Posts to the election communities will be moderated—all posts that meet the guidelines described below will be approved.
In your nomination post, you should:
- Clearly state that you are nominating yourself as a candidate for the Advisory Board elections.
- Include a statement about why you think you would make a good representative or why you’d like to serve.
- Use an lj-cut if the post is more than two paragraphs.
- Set Comment Screening to All Comments.
- Optionally, you may also include a link to an entry in your journal or a community that further states your position or platform, or that has your answers to these five suggested questions, also found in the community profiles of lj_election_en and lj_election_ru:
- What do you think is the value of LiveJournal?
- What changes would you like to see LiveJournal make in the next year?
- Why do you want to be the elected representative?
- What do you think are the community’s greatest concerns?
- What skills, qualifications, or unique perspective do you think you would bring to this position?
Supporting a Nominee
To support a nominee’s candidacy, you should comment to their nomination entry stating “I support this nomination” or something substantially similar. You may support multiple candidates’ nominations. Nominees need 300 motions of support in order to be invited to be a candidate in the election. Candidates are asked to assist by only unscreening those comments that express this motion of support, and election moderators will help with that process.
Once a post has comments of support from 300 different users, we will send the nominee a certification form to the email address currently registered and validated for use with their account. The form outlines the responsibilities and commitments that the user representative will likely have and asks the nominee to certify that they are willing and able to serve if elected. In order to be included in the election poll, a nominee must return this signed form via fax or email scan by 5:00 p.m. PDT and MSD on Friday, June 19, 2009. Instructions are included in the form.
Campaigning
It's hard to run for office without campaigning, and naturally we expect nominees will want to campaign for this election. Go for it. We do ask, however, that candidates and their supporters stay within the LiveJournal Terms of Service (i.e. no spamming, no encouraging others to spam other journals on your behalf, and such activities). Candidates who wish to serve as an Advisory Board representative are asked to maintain behavior befitting the position.
The Election
We will post the election poll starting at 9:00 a.m. PDT and MSD on June 22, 2009, and closing at 4:30 p.m. PDT and MSD, June 26, 2009. We will announce the opening of the polls in
news and post the election polls in lj_election_en and lj_election_ru. Users will be able to select their first, second, and third choice.Voting in the poll
Cyrillic-language users may only vote in the
lj_election_ru poll, and all other users may only vote in the lj_election_en poll. Additional restrictions include:- Only accounts created before March 31, 2009, are eligible to vote in this year’s poll.
- Only one account per email address may vote.
Tallying the results
After the polls close on June 26, 2009, we will determine the winner of the elections in the following way:
- If a user receives 51% of the first-choice vote, that candidate will be declared the winner.
- If no user receives 51% of the first-choice vote, we will begin an Instant Runoff process. The user with the lowest tally for first-choice vote will be eliminated, and the second-choice candidate on those ballots will be substituted as first choice. This process will continue (drop the lowest candidate, reassign to next vote, tally again) until any user has 51% of the vote.
- If all ballots are exhausted and no candidate has 51% of the vote, we will return to the first round and award the election to the candidate with the most first-choice votes.
New Advisory Board Members
We’ll post the results and announce the winner on Monday, June 29, 2009, after the results have been examined for accuracy and veracity, and (if needed) run through the Instant Runoff tallying program. The new user representatives to the LJ Advisory Board will be seated and begin their terms on July 1, 2009.
