Dave, Not to belabor this, but I still can't figure out how *Campaign material is any material that might reasonably be expected to affect the outcome of such election.* applies to the current situation. 73, Greg, K0GW On Thu, Apr 17, 2014 at 7:55 AM, Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ <dsumner@arrl.org>wrote:
Greg, I can answer your second question although I believe you already know the answer. A couple of years ago, an earlier E&E Committee prevented us even from reminding members via the ARRL Letter and the web news crawl that an election was going on. That having been the case, given the rule governing mass communications at League expense I felt obliged to refer Doug’s proposed message to the committee.
Here is the rule in question.
Dave
*Mass communications at League expense*
In any contested Director, Vice Director or Section Manager election, during the campaign period no mass communication at League expense in whole or in part, dealing with any candidate in any way or issued by a candidate, League or section official in the Division of the candidate, shall contain election campaign material. Campaign material is any material that might reasonably be expected to affect the outcome of such election. The campaign period is defined as the period from the deadline for receipt of nominating petitions for Director, Vice Director or Section Manager until the day ballots are due in the election. Mass communication is defined as communications by mail, electronic distribution, posting to a web site, email, hand delivery or by any other means of distribution to League members in the particular Division or Section involved in the contested election.
*From:* arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org [mailto: arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] *On Behalf Of *G Widin *Sent:* Thursday, April 17, 2014 8:35 AM *To:* Rehman, Doug, K4AC *Cc:* arrl-odv *Subject:* [arrl-odv:22615] Re: Ballot Mailing Reminders
A reminder that an election is going on, and to return one's ballot, is a completely neutral communication, as long as no specific candidate is mentioned. I can see no reason why E&E should not permit such an e-mail to be sent. In fact, I see no reason why such an e-mail would raise an issue that E&E would need to become involved in. 73,
Greg, K0GW
On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 8:43 PM, Doug Rehman <doug@k4ac.com> wrote:
I realize that the more conventional means of gathering the five Directors required for a review of a decision by the Ethics and Elections Committee would be via individual phone calls. Unfortunately time is of the essence in the instant matter so I will therefore make the request via ODV.
There is currently a contested Section Manager election in the Northern Florida Section; the current Section Manager is not one of the candidates. The ballots arrived in the Section early last week. (The ballots were mailed via standard/bulk mail on 4/1.) I emailed K1ZZ on Monday about sending a reminder to return the ballots and to let Section members who had not yet received a ballot know that they need to contact HQ to obtain a replacement ballot. The email was not even going to mention the candidates, just the ballots. K1ZZ ran the premise of the email by the E&E Committee.
Dave emailed me today to tell me that my sending of such an email would not be permitted by the E&E. Rather they will make a future proposal to the Board that reminder notifications will be sent from HQ.
While I will look forward to a discussion in July about a reminder policy, the E&E’s decision creates an immediate, untenable situation—there is an ongoing election within my Division that will be concluded long before any consideration is given to a reminder policy. Add to this the many unhappy members in my Division over the Director election last year that have said they didn’t receive notice.
I am at a loss to find anything in the Articles, Bylaws, or Policies and Rules that prohibits a Director from notifying the members of a Section within their Division that they should have received their ballots and to please return them. I am at a total loss as to how a generic reminder could reasonably be interpreted as a violation of ethics.
In full disclosure, I live in the Northern Florida Section. I know both candidates personally and have given similar campaign advice to both when they contacted me. While my close friends know which candidate I voted for, I have been very careful, including at my home radio club, to not take any position for or against a candidate.
I respectfully request that Directors that agree that my sending a reminder email to the NFL members needs to be decided by the entire Board so indicate.
Thanks & 73,
Doug
Doug Rehman, K4AC
Director Southeastern Division
ARRL—The National Association for Amateur Radio®
doug@k4ac.com
www.arrlse.org
www.facebook.com/arrlse
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