wet-behind-the-ears whippersnapper seeking advice on building a nationwide network

Fri Sep 23 10:35:02 UTC 2011

On Sep 23, 2011, at 1:40 AM, Jim Duncan wrote:
> With my parliamentarian hat on:
> A nominating committee's essential function is to ensure that a minimum number of qualified, vetted individuals are placed on the slate of candidates for election. it should never be a gating function; it is an important safeguard to allow the nomination of qualified individuals outside the nominating committee and "from the floor" before votes are cast. 
> ...

> Although organizations may decide for themselves how a nominating committee will operate, it is inconsistent with the general principles of parliamentary process -- whichever standard you choose, Robert's, Sturgis, or another -- for all candidates to be forced to pass through the gauntlet of the nominating committee. 

Jim - 

  I agree with you in principle regarding the NomCom's essential 
  function, but note that your requirement that the Nominating 
  Committee pass _all_ candidates minimally qualified is not the 
  only valid approach.  In the case of ARIN, the NomCom process
  provides a sufficient number of qualified qualified candidates
  but is specifically not required to provide all such candidates
  <https://www.arin.net/participate/elections/nomcom_faqs.html>

  The protection of the parliamentary representation principle that
  you allude to (i.e. the freedom for members of an organization to 
  choose its own leadership) to is instead provided via a petition 
  process.  This mechanism provides a comparable safeguard by allowing
  anyone to be added to the ballot if they desire such and can show 
  some support in the community for their candidacy.

  Note that ARIN's initial Bylaws only provided for direct selection 
  of new Board members by the ARIN Board from a list of candidates 
  chosen by the ARIN AC.  In subsequent years, this was changed to be 
  a separate NomCom, and a petition process requiring support of 15% 
  of the electorate was added. The petition threshold was then lowered 
  to 5% of the electorate, and then again recently lowered to be now
  2% of the electorate. The ARIN Board has reviewed the election process 
  in each of the recent years to see if any further changes are required.

  Further evolution of this process is quite possible, and discussion
  here (or on an ARIN mailing list) will help inform the ARIN Board 
  about the community views on this matter.

Thanks!
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
ARIN