uxb

Congrats to you all!

skchin

Thank you Spiff.

obscure2k

^^

Jinxy

Congrats to those that were elected.

Disappointing still to not have a member from Australasia on the Talkboard.
As someone that stood last year (but didn't this time), I truly hope that people are understanding that FT is truly a global community and perhaps in the future, someone can be elected to represent each region of the world.

Dovster

We did in the past. OzStamps was elected to TalkBoard with a very high vote count.

Jinxy

Thanks for letting me know. Must of been way before my time!

RichMSN

Anyone from any area of the world can be elected. They just have to finish in the top 4 (or 5) positions of the voting. @:-)

Exiled in Express

Congratulations to all who won and a thank you to those who threw their name in the ring. ^

I actually missed the voting window this year, perhaps the link to voting can be a little more obtrusive/in your face next year?

Jinxy

Yes I do know that...however my suggestion is that perhaps in the future all the elected spots can be from different regions....someone from the US, someone from Europe, etc etc
It is interesting to read the topic threads and decisions made, and sometimes I think that parts of the voting is too US centric, with the focus and decisions based on what people who live in the USA think/feel.

RichMSN

I'm not sure I would be in favor of a position being reserved for a particular part of the world. We've had people on the TalkBoard from Europe and Australia and those members have exactly the same opportunity to run and win election as anyone else.

nsx

I'm open to the concept, but it presupposes that Americans will vote only for Americans. In point of fact, I often have no idea of a member's nationality until we actually meet. Another point is that the vote totals are low enough that you don't need to win a large number of votes. Heck, if someone who hangs out in the relatively tiny Southwest Airlines forum can win, I figure that a non-American who posts mostly in a large airline forum should be able to win. But sure, if this can be shown to be a problem, I'd strongly consider allocating a TB seat for a non-US member.

Another approach would be to allow the TalkBoard itself (or our Community Director if you prefer) to name one TalkBoard member every other year, so that each year's election would be for 4 members. This allows the possibility of giving the TalkBoard a very valuable contributor who for whatever reason (such as being non-American and not well-known to enough members) could not win election. I'm not proposing this, just tossing it out as one idea to consider.

MSPeconomist

In the very early days of TB, its members were appointed by Randy and then it quickly evolved to having everyone elected at large. It might be interesting to know how the pros and cons of the different systems were perceived at the time.

In this year's election, Europeans finished fifth and seventh for four openings on TB. This means that if anyone leaves TB within about the next twelve months, the position will be offered to a European as the first runner-up.

travelkid

The European in 5th is American, at the time living in EU.

oliver2002

I guess the key to getting elected is also a factor of popularity and/or name recognition. If the voters have never seen you on their section of the forum or met you at a Do they are not going to vote with joy for you. FTs US/non US readership seems to be split 60/40 by pageviews (using Google Adplanner stats):

Canada is another 110k: https://www.google.com/adplanner/#si...eo=CA&lp=false

The problem with non-US is that its geographically and forum wise far more spread out, so getting to be well known is tough

Dovster

When I first ran for TB there was a rule that said that at least one member had to be from outside the US/Canada.

The rule was not really necessary as there was already one such member on the board and Attorney28 and I were both elected, making non-North Americans 33% of TB, which actually resulted in Americans being under-represented in proportion to their membership on FT.

I thought the rule was undemocratic and unfair (even though I could be the beneficiary of it when I sought to run again). It seemed to me rather silly that you could have a result, when there are four openings on TB, like the following:

Philadelphia Joe: 1000 votes
New York Mary: 900 votes
Baltimore Melvin: 859 votes
Dallas Jim: 790 votes
Tel Aviv Yossi: 12 votes

Winners? Philadelphia Joe, New York Mary, Baltimore Melvin, Tel Aviv Yossi.

When I got onto TB I made a motion to abolish this rule. 5 members voted in favor, 3 against, 1 abstained. In those days, 6 "aye" votes were required for a motion to pass, so technically this one was defeated. Randy, however, saw that this was a fairer way to handle elections and put the rule into effect himself.