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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