The last part of the Analysis is in the Unions, sitting at the bottom of the ballot paper. With three distinct categories, there were three very interesting results.
In the Senior Member battle, Ben McNab took home the bacon, polling over half the votes in the first round, and winning by a clear majority. I'm sure that Ben will do a good job, but I am disappointed he got elected. Paul is a good friend of mine, so I would have loved to see him on the Committee, especially as he heavily uses the Unions, and was until the end of the last festival one of the senior staff in the Pleasance (the proper Pleasance, not Pleasance at Potterrow). Iain has been doing a damn good job for the previous three years and I think he too would have been a great continuance in the role.
What however annoys me the most - and why I gave Ben the lowest preference - is that he wants to "resign" at the end of each year to fight his seat again, in a John Major-esque put up and shut up. The point of the Senior Member is that they are there for three years to provide continuity and a guiding hand in a Committee which has its membership change annually. Ben's rather odd decision is jepoardising the stability of the committee, which isn't big, isn't smart and really isn't rather clever. Also by resigning each year (something he would have to do well before nominations open), would mean that Committee of Management would be short of a Senior Member for upto 3 of its 8 annual meetings.
Looking at the Union Executive, and again, it is full of the returners - not a single new person elected; although at least this year the members of UnionExec have a mandate, after the 3 being returned unopposed last year. Ellie Price's "upgrade" from 1st Year Union Exec member is to be congratulated, and gives the Green's a continued voice. Pete Harris makes his return from Canada - although I'm wondering if we can keep our Moose, and if that will keep him there (see his website for more info): he's not caused us any trouble this year, and I quite would like that to continue. James Wallace also makes a return for a 3rd Year on Union Exec - quite an impressive run of results, and something that rivals the Senior Members for continuity. However, with James possibly off to Texas for 2007-2008, will his stay be a short one to the end of May, with the seat coming available again in the October Elections. If so, expect it to be highly contested, and a chance for the losers to get in.
Commitee of Management was a much tighter election with the final two positions being elected at the death, in a battle that looked to go any way depending on who was dropping out. With Tom French "elected elsewhere" (and how many of those in the room wish he wasn't) and James Wallace elected above, the field was cut to 10. It was a surprise that the polling numbers came in as they did. Rosy's excellent performance in the first round is testament to a good clean campaign, a good facebook group, an excellent website - which related to what she was standing for (unlike Nick & Katherine) - and probably because she asked lots of people to vote for her for this position, rather than spending time asking them to vote for other people or vote for other positions: I'm guessing this is what happened to Katherine, Nick, Stewart, Stephen, Ondrej and Alasdair.
All suffered really quite badly, and peformed a lot worse than expected. Tim Goodwin was in the lead from the start, and to be honest that is what you expect from a Sabbatical, so Tim Gee polling lower numbers than Rosy is surprising - no doubt this is in part due to the Green vote being split between himself & Alasdair. Having a total of 3 Sabbaticals on the CoM will be tough next year, and having two former VPSs as well as the current one will also be interesting - especially as Pete & Tim Gee both "supported" Tom this year. It is therefore upto the rest of the Committee to ensure that he does not get away with blue murder or just putting things through. Of the 6 ordinary members who will make up the Committee until after the October elections, only Rosy is the complete new comer to EUSA politics, and Commitee of Management: best of luck, because it's going to be a tough year.
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4 comments:
What oh Jordan are your predictions for next year?
Can you explain why he would have to resign months in advance?
I believe Jordan is looking at the rules regarding CoM. Currently you have to resign and have that resignation approved at a meeting of CoM (assuming in this case the one before the elections). As Senior members don't take office till September that means the seat would be empty from the end of February till the first meeting in September/ October depending on the Uni calendar.
I couldn't have put it better than the Anon above. To have an election, you need to have resigned before nominations open (i.e. resigning at the January CoM meeting). Thus, CoM would be a Senior Member down for the intervening time until after the election - however in this case, as it would be a by-election for that particular Senior Member seat, they would take office immediately, not in Sept/Oct as noted.
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