Latest IEEE Southern Alberta Section (SAS) Executive Committee Officer Election Voting Rules/Guidelines

Date: Mon., Nov 07th, 2022
Attn: IEEE Southern Alberta Section (SAS) Members
Subject: Updated IEEE Section ExCom Officer Election/Voting Process, Nov. 2022

Please be advised, … (per a change, that came into effect, on Sun., Oct 30th, 2022, within our IEEE Southern Alberta Section (SAS) and as per an IEEE Region 7 (Canada) Executive Committee recommendation, … made to the IEEE SAS Chair (Rod McNeil), … on Sun. Oct. 23rd, 2022, … at the IEEE Region 7 (Canada), 2022 Fall Board of Directors (B of D) Meeting, … held “in person”, … in the Greater Toronto Area), … there will NOT be “live voting” , … scheduled during the 2022 IEEE SAS AGM, … (to be held on Tue., Nov. 15th, 2022, … for the slate of four IEEE SAS Executive Committee (ExCom) Officers, … (Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer, Secretary), … up for election, … for the 2023-2024 term, … where a vote is indeed required, … for a given “contested” position.

Furthermore, any voting required for the slate of candidates/nominees, … for the IEEE SAS Executive Committee Officer Positions, … for the 2023-2024 term, … as it stands at the close of business, … at the 2022 IEEE SAS AGM, … will be conducted “on-line”, … using the official IEEE “on-line” vTools *, “e-voting” application, … created for the purpose. Where such a “on-line” e-voting process is required, … such an IEEE e-vote shall commence, some time after the 2022 IEEE SAS AGM, … later in the month of Nov. 2022. And such a 2022 IEEE SAS e-vote shall close on or before the end of the month of Nov. 2022, … (Wed., Nov. 30th, 2022). (A voting window of one week, … is expected for the 2022 IEEE SAS ExCom Officer Election e-voting process.)

Next point, … this “on-line” e-voting process, for the 2022 slate of IEEE SAS Executive Committee Officers, … again, … where required, … after the 2022 IEEE SAS AGM, … will be open to all IEEE Members within the Section, … in good standing, … at the time of the “on-line” vote, … except for IEEE SAS Student Branch (SB) Members, … as they are not eligible to vote in an IEEE Section “level” Executive Committee Officer Election. (To the best of our knowledge, … within the SAS, … at this time, … the IEEE vTools e-voting app’ will automatically exclude IEEE SAS SB Members, … from such a Section Executive Committee Officer Election and not issue them an e-ballot, … when the “on-line” e-voting process is initiated, within the IEEE vTools, e-vote app’.)

Background:

  1. “Live”, “in person” IEEE Section Elections are now obsolete and discouraged: Our practice of holding “live” elections at the IEEE SAS AGM in the past, … and/or at any other time or at any other event, within any Section of the IEEE, … has more or less ended here, in late 2022. And the IEEE SAS expects that there will be an out right ban on IEEE Section voting practices that do not use the IEEE vTools e-voting app’ in 2023 and beyond, … world wide, … by the IEEE governing body, having authority, … the IEEE Membership and Geographic Activities (MGA) Group.
  2. Section Voting and AGM Functions Split Going Forward: There is no current or past IEEE rule or guideline that requires IEEE Section ExCom Officer Election voting, … in a “live format”, … now being actively discouraged in late 2022, … and/or in an “on-line” e-voting format, … to occur in sync’ with the date and time of the Section AGM.)
  3. “On-line” Voting Mechanics/Logistics Issues: The official IEEE “on-line” vTools e-voting application helps the IEEE SAS avoid some “mechanics” or “logistics” issues, … in the case of the “virtual” 2022 IEEE SAS, … related to trying to successfully stage a “live” vote, during a “virtual” meeting:
    • In the past, IEEE SAS ExCom Officer voting at an “In person” Section AGM was done, … by in large, … by a “show of hands”, … (not a secret vote), … for a given position, … where the candidates in question, for a given position, … if present, … stepped out of the room, … during the “in-person” vote. This also meant that Section Officer voting was limited to IEEE Members that showed up to an “In person” AGM Dinner c/w a Guest Speaker, … held in Calgary.,
    • Alternate “e-voting” or “e-balloting” apps, that may or may not be built into Webex by Cisco, MS Teams, Zoom, or the like, … maintain no official record of “votes” during a meeting, … that can meet the pending IEEE e-voting standards.
    • A Webex, MS teams, etc. based e-voting or on-line, attendee surveying processes or apps are not generally “secret” voting processes, … unlike the IEEE vTools e-voting system, … which is a “secret” e-voting process.
    • As stated above, the IEEE SAS ExCom Officer Election voting process was limited in the past, to the just the IEEE Section Membership, that registered and attended the Section AGM, … “in person”. The current IEEE vTools e-voting process/app’ has no such limits. All IEEE Section Members in good standing, (minus SB Members) will receive an IEEE e-ballot outlining the candidates up for election, …(in non contested races), … complete with an election statement/”bio”, … if the candidate so chooses to include one. (This is the main driver of the change to e-voting for Section Officers within the IEEE as a whole, … such Section e-votes are open to all Section Members.)
    • A manual, “in camera” voting process will take up a lot of time and effort to execute successfully at a “virtual” AGM event and could have a number of (proof of identify, etc.) issues, … not easily handled, … that I will not detail here. (And such an AGM manual “in camera” voting process, would not be a secret voting process, where a vote is indeed required, for a given race.) Therefore, a separate, e-voting process, … where required, … for electing IEEE 2022 IEEE SAS ExCom Officers, … outside a “virtual” 2022 AGM, … is welcomed within the IEEE SAS ExCom, at this time.
      • Therefore, the current IEEE SAS Exec’ Committee has decided it is best to split AGM functions and e-voting functions, for 2022 and very likely, for all AGM’s, in the future, … to avoid complicating the AGM itself.

Last point, … if there is only one candidate/nominee, … per IEEE SAS Exec’ Committee Officer position, … at the time of the 2022 IEEE SAS AGM, … and no other valid candidate(s)/nominee(s), … step(s) forward to be nominated for a given position, … before the close of business at the 2022 IEEE SAS AGM, … the single candidate/nominee officially in place, … via the 2022 IEEE SAS nomination process, … completed at or before the 2022 IEEE SAS AGM, … will assume the given position, … for the new 2023-2024 term, … by “acclamation” … and no official “on-line” e-voting, after the 2022 IEEE SAS AGM, will occur, for the given IEEE SAS ExCom Officer position.

* Most of the IEEE internally developed suite of applications, from the IEEE MGA, are grouped under the title “vTools”, … for virtual Tools, … most or all of which are designed and available for IEEE Section/Technical Chapter/Affinity (AF) Group/Student Branch (SB) use.

Regards

Rod J.K. McNeil, P. Eng.
IEEE Southern Alberta Section (SAS) Chair
2021-2022 Term