RE: CAS Election Process

HMahler ( HMahler@compuserve.com )
Tue, 4 Jan 2000 13:31:26 -0500

The question has been asked what is broke?
The more relevant question is what has changed that might lead one to
change the voting procedures. I see two changes, the growth in the CAS an=
d
improvements in communications technology.

The CAS has grown tremendously since whenever the current election proces=
s
was conceived. This has a number of impacts. =

First, a member is unlikely to know enough about many of the candidates t=
o
vote intelligently. For example, personally I probably know the minimum
information needed to vote intelligently for 20% to 40% of the candiates
for the board. I doubt most members are better off. =

Second, there are more Committee Chairs, etc. Therefore, there is a large=
r
field of qualified candidates.

The CAS is a bigger operation. Therefore, some of the jobs are more
important and/or requie more time. There are more issues.

A larger group has a tendenancy to be more diverse. Thus more discussion
may be needed to reach a concensus or compromise.

A larger group makes it harder for members to directly influence their
representatives through letters or conversations. Thus it is more importa=
nt
to indirectly influence representitives through voting based on
"Campaigns." (An analogy is the difference between the govenment of a sma=
ll
town and that of a large city.)

Fortunately, the use of Email and webpages makes communicatiosn and
intelligently contested elections possible. In any case we should an issu=
es
forum on the CAS webpage, not restricted to members only.

Howard Mahler, FCAS

Visit the CAS Web Site at http://www.casact.org
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