Ria et al: Once again, it would appear that technology is moving faster than the ARRL. I've looked through our rules and recent actions regarding nomination petitions. Neither the rules nor the interpretations have considered the use of commercially available software like Adobe Sign, DocuSign and VeriSign. The issue comes down to whether or not we would accept the ultimate paperwork whereby the candidate has collected signatures using electronic means. This is something that, prior to this, has not been contemplated. By Law 18 addresses the filing of nominating petitions for Director/Vice Director elections. In part it states ".....The submission may be made by facsimile or electronic transmission of images, provided that upon request by the Secretary the original documents are received by the Secretary within seven days of the request." The "rules" I found for Section elections are similar. The Rules and Regulations Concerning American Radio Relay League Division and Section Manager Elections state "....Nominating petitions may be made by facsimile or electronic transmission of images, provided that upon request by the Field Services and Radiosport Manager the original documents are received by the Manager within seven days of the request...." In keeping with this, last year's Ethics and Elections Committee confirmed the practice of accepting .pdf copies of nominating petitions where the candidate had collected the signatures by sending the form out for signature and the individual had hand-signed and returned the form to the candidate electronically (pdf). This year's Committee reaffirmed that position. This also assumed that all the individual forms were aggregated and submitted to HQ either by mail or electronically with the other paperwork. While that was for Division elections, I believe it should also apply to Section elections as well. This is a long winded way of saying that our current election rules do not specifically address collecting signatures electronically and but they indicate only facsimile or electronic transmission of images (.pdf) are the acceptable forms for submission of nominating petitions. I realize that is not in keeping with the current technologies but it would seem to exclude use of those technologies at the current time. Having said that, there may be a way to change this, albeit within the current Division and Section election cycles. The Board could change By Law 18 to include electronic signatures at the upcoming meeting in July. It would take 12 votes as we're within the 30 day window prior to the meeting, but it could be done. HERE'S THE CAVEAT: Because I am not personally familiar with the technologies (although I've used them as a signee on many occasions), I can't say with any certainty what it would take to insure our ability to create and/or accept electronically signed documents both from the candidate and from individually signed petitions within an acceptable timeframe. I think we need to work to figure this out before any action by the Board. However, I don't want to add an IT project to the existing list of critical projects and defer resources for this. If this requires ARRL IT time or server space to complete, I would recommend it being deferred to later in the year and dealt with at the January meeting. I look forward to discussing this with you and will answer any questions you might have if I can. 73, Barry, N1VXY Message----- From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> On Behalf Of rjairam@gmail.com Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2020 8:35 PM To: arrl-odv <arrl-odv@arrl.org> Subject: [arrl-odv:30449] Electronic signatures One of the candidates for section manager in my division reached out to me regarding electronic signatures. He collected electronic signatures using Adobe Sign and is now being asked to submit "originals" presumably by mail on paper. Organizations all over the US and the world for that matter are now accepting these electronic signatures. You sign with a stylus or your finger on your phone and the signature is placed on the document and also recorded in an electronic database. Everyone from the FAA to the FCC, financial institutions and even car dealerships and insurance companies are now accepting them, and VE sessions are being conducted with e-signatures. Our LoTW system is also based on digital signatures, albeit a different type. The purpose of this email is twofold. 1. Barry - can you clarify if the staff are equipped to handle e-signatures, for, among other things - election petitions, and if not, can we ensure that they are equipped to do so. 2. Can we amend the by-laws to clarify that we will accept e-signatures? I would like to have E&E investigate the possibility and sponsor a motion, if needed. The need for this is that in times of restrictions due to public health emergencies such as Covid-19 or whatever else gets thrown at us, we can still carry on business with electronic signatures. This person is in New York City and as you know the virus hit hard there. Traveling around the city to collect signatures (which would usually be done on mass transit) would be difficult due to the risk. Thank you for your consideration. Ria N2RJ _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv