[ivfdf-news] Request for Member societies to identify their voting members - and Deferral of VOTE
Cait Leach
cait.leach at ntlworld.com
Thu May 24 11:16:29 BST 2007
Hi Richard.
Yes, Sheffield Ceilidhsoc do want to vote for themselves which is why yesterday afternoon at 4.23 I sent the following email to the email address that Ian Thompson specified:
"Hi, apologies for the delay- exams are in full swing at the moment and little else gets past the work filter.. Voting reps for Ceilidhsoc are cait.leach at ntlworld.com and ceilidh.soc at shef.ac.uk (our secretary Lucy)."
Apologies for having to make such a point out of this, but I feel some comments are unnecessary.
Caitriona
----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Mason
To: ivfdf-news at ivfdf.org
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2007 10:02 AM
Subject: Re: [ivfdf-news] Request for Member societies to identify their voting members - and Deferral of VOTE
Hi all,
I can't believe that after all the emails we only have two societies who have put forward voting members by the deadline, and that we have to delay the vote. I am sorry, but that is woeful.... and Sheffield, don't you want to vote for yourselves?
Please bear in mind that currently the situation is that Sheffield have not been confirmed as hosts of IVFDF 2008, and that unless they do get confirmed, or someone else offers and is confirmed, there will be no official IVFDF in 2008. So if you want something to do next year, then get yourselves registered!!!
Since (by and large) member societies have probably had a change in committee since IVFDF this year, possibly to people who have never been to a Reps meeting, and so that people are not voting in a vacuum, it might be useful to have some guidelines on what the criteria are for voting for or against a particular proposal.
Andrew, as constitution guru, could you summarise what the constitution actually says on the matter (if anything).
My personal take on it, from having been involved for a while, is as follows:
1) A group should be approved as hosts for the festival if they have demonstrated their ability to organise it.
This will include (as a minimum)
a) Booking suitable venues
b) Booking bands
c) Producing a balanced budget
d) Producing an advertising plan.
2) Underwriting can be applied for by the organising committee, to protect themselves from losses that are outside their control (ie major snowfall stops anyone getting there, or main band pulling out due to injury as recently happened). To be granted underwriting, a committee is expected to have made 'all its best efforts' to avoid losses. This is a bit of a woolly phrase, but its meant to mean that if a committee enters into a festival ignoring a forseeable risk and gets caught by it, then that would not be 'best efforts'. Such risks in the past have included, not getting firm bookings on venues/bands/etc, not advertising the festival, or most famously guaranteeing food sales to a university.
I am sure that others will correct me if I have interpreted the situation incorrectly. There should be no reason now for people not to get registered and vote.
If you still feel that you are lacking information, either on Sheffield's plans, or on what is expected of you as a member society, then please do send a message to the list - because there are probably others feeling the same.
Lets get this situation resolved one way or the other....!
========================================
Message Received: May 24 2007, 12:13 AM
From: "Ian Thompson"
To: ivfdf-news at ivfdf.org
Cc:
Subject: [ivfdf-news] Request for Member societies to identify their voting members - and Deferral of VOTE
OK folks it is now after 11:55pm on the last day
of the 3 week notice period. Anyone claiming that
they didn't know this was coming ... should have
read the e-mail I sent 3 weeks ago!
To date I have received notification of
representatives from 2 (two) member societies .
Exeter Folk Soc
Gog Magog
I am still waiting for named representatives from
the following groups who were at IVFDF Reps Meeting in 2007 or 2006
Sheffield Folk Soc
New Scotland SCDS
Glasgow Uni SCDS
Warwick Folk Soc
Cambridge Strathspey and Reel Club
Cambridge Round
Durham Folk Soc
Rag Moris Bristol
Aberdeen University SCDS
As I don't have a quorum of representatives I
cannot start a vote. Having considered the
constitutional situation I have made an executive
decision to take the following pragmatic action.
I will delay the vote itself by 5 days. This should allow the following: -
1) During the next 5 days can I request that EACH
(member) society sends the names and valid e-mail
addresses for their 2 voting members to
ivfdf-reps at ianthompson.me.uk [this will enable me
to stream mail appropriately]. If your society is
unable to pick 2 people in this time scale please
at least e-mail me so I know you exist.
2) slightly more time for relevant information to
be received by those voting. [see separate message]
I would however wish to point out that the 2008
organising committee have had 3 weeks notice that
this deadline was due and should have provided
information to both the list ivfdf-news and their
advisors to allow the advisors to make a suitable
considered response. When voting, representatives
should bear this fact in mind before making their
decisions as I feel it is a practical
demonstration of the 2008 committees ability to meet deadlines.
So the new schedule is as follows
* Now until 23:59 on the 28th May - societies to
notify me of their voting members.
* 00:00 29th May to 23:59 4th June Poll are open for voting.
* 00:00 5th June to 23:59 11th June dispute period.
* Final result out 12th June (birthday gift to
myself - it will hopefully all be over)
In response to Alison's question about the amount
of underwriting - constitutionally only Sheffield
can alter the proposal, so only they can reduce
or increase the amount. The deadline for that has
now passed. All that remains now is for
representatives to vote on whether they feel that
2008/Sheffield have provided enough information
to justify their request for up to £1000 of
underwriting should their festival fail to make the profit they predict.
Representatives (and advisors) can only make this
decision (and provide a their reports to
representatives) on information available to
them. If they feel that they do not have the
information they need to support the request then
they should vote accordingly.
Regards
Ian
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