Theos-Talk Archives (October 2008 Message tt00729)

Couple of points. During John Coats election, it was three way -- three well
known candidates. I have no problem in the candidates beating their own
drums as much as they want to. It is their birthright.

The basic problem in the current election was the attempt to defeat a
candidate by providing incomplete and inaccurate information and it is an
insult to the intelligence of the ordinary members. In addition, the secret
attempt by a handful of people to change the rules quickly before any
members could find out simply lacks trust in the judgement of the members.
Members should have been consulted.  In addition, they should have known
what they are trying to do was also illegal; disenfranchisement of members
without their consent.

Any politician or attorney who knows something about the corporate/nonprofit
management/legal/political issues would have raised a red flag before the
move was made. Simple reading of the rules using a dictionary and trying to
interpret and modify does not cut it. If it is so simple, the court judges
would all be English majors and the supreme court would be filled with
linguistic professors to interpret the written legal material. Someone
should have thought about these things.

I feel there is going to be some unintended consequences as a result of what
happened and none of us can foresee what they are. Let us wait and see.

mkr



On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 10:24 PM, Anton Rozman <anton_rozman@yahoo.com>wrote:

>   Hi Eldon,
>
> Thank you very much for the article. It was interesting diving into
> the American President's election system. It would be probably very
> interesting to experiment with the idea to have in the TS an
> electoral college consisting out of individual lodges (as fundamental
> units) as districts.
>
> I think that major defect in the American system is that election
> campaign is governed by money and that an independent candidate has
> no chance against parties' candidates which are supported by big
> money. So, the great problem is how to give equal chance to all
> candidates and reduce to the minimum influence of corporate financial
> interests.
>
> While in American system the outcome depends of the financial
> background in the TS it seems that depends of the tradition. Namely,
> in the past it was quite usual to have only one candidate running. In
> instances when we had two candidates, as in last elections, and the
> Society was really confronted with the democratic process and its own
> Rules and Regulations it came to the surface all its incapability do
> decently cope with them.
>
> It seems that now all officers would like to let us forget that past
> elections were actually won by "NO THANKS" candidate. There are
> voices who try to convince us that the TS is in fact democratic
> organization although its Rules and Regulations are constantly
> misinterpreted and violated in that or another way. They try to
> convince us that we have to forget the indecent election process
> which revealed the actual shameful state of affairs and go back to
> the business and sweep all under the carpet.
>
> Well, probably it will not work that way. We have to change our
> behavior, we have to collaborate and find solutions for change and
> stop scapegoating.
>
> Warmest regards,
> Anton
>
> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com <theos-talk%40yahoogroups.com>, MKR
> <mkr777@...> wrote:
> >
> > Thanks Eldon.
> >
> > It is the timing (soon after election defeat), super secrecy and
> speed with
> > which the Quartet wanted to revamp everything is seen as trying
> pull a fast
> > one on the members.
> >
> > I wish if the whole range of problems were thrown open to member
> and got the
> > members behind them would have had a good chance of some reform.
> Today, in
> > my opinion, many members have lost their trust in the leaders and
> until that
> > is rebuilt (which cannot be done overnight), we cannot expect
> members'
> > support for any change. This is because of the continuing secrecy
> and non
> > transparency of the process of the GC makes one wonder what else is
> cooking
> > behind closed doors.
> >
> > mkr
> >
> >
> >
> > On 10/21/08, Eldon B Tucker <write001@...> wrote:
> > >
> > > Some of the ongoing debate about the T.S. election and proposals
> > > subsequently circulating made me think of an article I read in
> > > DISCOVER MAGAZINE many years ago. It discusses the mathematics
> behind
> > > and the reasons for the electoral college in the U.S. presidential
> > > elections. It makes a good case that such a system preserves the
> > > rights of minority groups much better than a direct national
> election
> > > would.
> > >
> > > There are many copies of the article on the internet. One link to
> it I
> > > found has some interesting discussion attached. It's worth
> reading and
> > > may contribute some ideas to the current discussion.
> > >
> > > http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1234409/posts
> > >
> > > -- Eldon
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>
>  
>


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