Steve Smith
The CIRA Board Elections are upon us once again. Voting takes place online from 6:00 pm (18:00h) Ottawa time on September 6, 2007 to 6:00 pm (18:00h) Ottawa time on September 13, 2007. Final candidates and their statements are listed at https://elections.cira.ca/2007/finalslate/list/en. This year, it will be an extremely tight race so anyone who has completed their membership authentication process should make a special effort to vote. Here are some reasons why:
1. Voting will be done through a “split ballot”. • three of of a possible seven Directors will be elected from the Final Nomination Committee Slate https://elections.cira.ca/2007/finalslate/list/en • only one Director out of a possible fifteen will be elected from the Final Members’ Slate https://elections.cira.ca/2007/finalslate/list/en
2. This year, CIRA undertook a new membership authentication process which many have found lengthy and tedious. In the past, you simply had to register a .CA domain or become a .CA registrant and choose “yes” or “no” in order to become a member and vote in the elections. This year, all members had to re-enroll by first calling CIRA. Someone would then have to call you back in a about 10 days to confirm your contact information and other details. You then receive a registered letter from CIRA a few weeks later with a key to confirm online. Once that is complete you recieve a membership card in the mail.
In order to vote in this election, you had to have completed your authentication process prior to July 31, 2007. Plus, members will be sent a unique voting token by mail before the start of the election period. Paul Andersen, one of the candidates has posted a sample of what this looks like at http://www.paul.ca/cira-member-forms.php. So don’t throw this important piece of mail away.
Despite the importance of CIRA and its work for Canadian domain name holders, voter turnout in the past has been low 1,488 in 2006, 1,879 in 2005 and 1,644 in 2004; all a very small percentage of.CA owners. It will be interesting to see how many people vote this year given the complicated membership process and the fact that many people don’t realize they need to receive a special key in the mail in order to vote.
If you’re looking for guidance on who to vote for, you should first read the CIRA board candidate statements as well as the question and answer forum to help you determine who you feel is best suited for the role.
In my opinion, with Bernard Turcotte, President of CIRA leaving, having folks like Paul Andersen and Clyde Beattie who have extensive experience on the CIRA board would help with continuity and stability of the organization in the upcoming years.
Online voting is available from 3:00 pm PST on Thuesday, September 6, 2007 through 3:00 pm PST on Thursday, September 13, 2007 through the CIRA Election website: https://elections.cira.ca/2007/en/vote.html