USRowing election results

[fullmetal]

Let's break it down: 1,460 people voted out of a total eligible population of 21,040. I get that the only nationally-relevant office under contention was the male vice-chair (erm, seems like an outdated board position of sorts) where all four candidates were from east of the Rockies, but still...

So, take home point #1: Not many USRowing members are voting. You sort of expect this, but sub-7 percent is a little low.

Greg Benning won with a majority. His resume was pretty impeccable, and his Boston roots probably guaranteed his election. Oh, also Wolf stumped for him on this forum, which has an international reach

Marcia Hooper won in an uncontested election for female vice-chair.

Mid-Atlantic rep: Joe Manion wins it with a majority of the 73 votes. So only 73 USRowing members from the Mid-Atlantic voted? I think New York, Philly, and DC belong to the Mid-Atlantic. Only 73 voted...

Midwest rep: Matthew Hughes got 14 votes and won over Willard Donoho (9 votes). Midwest, only 23 of you showed up to vote? What on Earth?

Mid-Atlantic Referee rep: John Musial wins uncontested with 74 votes out of 74 exercised ballots. There were 80 total ballots cast. This is interesting as that means more ballots were cast for the referee rep position than the board of directors position. I'm not sure how that works. Also, are only referees allowed to vote for referee representatives? (I'm really not sure...)

Midwest Referee rep: There were 57 ballots cast, with Derek Blazo winning (30 votes). This is over 2x the number of ballots cast for the Midwest board position, and again, I'm not sure what's going on here.

And the Southwest Referee rep election was suspended for reasons unannounced. Oh boy.

[lt.wolf]

Interesting enough is that Junior members are allowed to vote ...still a low turnout .

[fullmetal]

The reddit crowd...an untapped demographic. Let the meme-pandering begin.

[bendtheoar]

It should be noted that the voting for the mid-Atlantic and Mid-West reps was by organizations, not individual members, so although the number of organizations not voting is still substantial, each vote represents an organization of USRowing, not just one member. In addition, while a junior is eligible to vote if they are a Championship member, most of the Juniors in the US are basic members, possibly with the new Regatta package, but not eligible to vote nonetheless, so the junior influence in the voting is probably very small, Reddit notwithstanding. Voting for the referee positions is only by active referees, and I have no idea why there is an issue with one of those positions.

[fullmetal]

Ah...okay, that explains a lot of that. Is that fair? Some organizational members are non-profit and democratic, others not so. But still, surely there are more than 23 rowing organizations in the Midwest and more than ~70 rowing organizations in the Mid-Atlantic...right?

[bendtheoar]

Ah...okay, that explains a lot of that. Is that fair? Some organizational members are non-profit and democratic, others not so. But still, surely there are more than 23 rowing organizations in the Midwest and more than ~70 rowing organizations in the Mid-Atlantic...right?

It may not be fair, especially when some organizations have 200+ members and others under 50, but that is the set-up for those positions right now. The good news is that the organizations that did vote represent in excess of 7,000 members, the bad news is that USRowing elections with a14% participation rate are actually slightly higher in rate than the typical similar organization where a 10% return of voting materials is about the norm. It is particularly a problem when the membership of the organization have complaints but don't bother to get involved at the very basic level by voting. USrowing is trying to serve its members in a better manner and hopefully as that becomes more obvious the membership will become more engaged as well.

[fullmetal]

Should USRowing go to a per capita voting system for all races then? It works for the national positions...

Also, I have no idea how my rowing club votes in the regional elections.

[fullmetal]

I missed this-- Marcia Hooper is still a co-chair for the NRF, right? And she's now the female vice-chair on the USRowing board. I remember the proposition that the NRF and USRowing work more closely together, but I didn't think this was the way it would happen.