Originally Posted by
Jinxy
Hear hear!! Finally other people speak up also... Was starting to think I was a big whinger in the minority!
Please talk board elected members... There is another world out there apart from the states and not everything that should be covered to include us, is.
I love FT, hence why I chose to be a member here rather than the Aussie version where too much politics put me off participating in normal forum topics.
It may not seem like a big deal to those of you, but spare a thought please.
In the future I think a fair and balanced talk board should have members from all over the world, I truly believe it is fairer and you get a balanced view from different areas.
If by bedfordrocks and myself being the only two Aussie candidates plus others that were not US based, you know there is interest and willingness for us to be included.
I would almost imagine that all the votes for the top 5 especially being high posters from the US were guaranteed to get in even with the low votes polled this year. Americans on an American website wouldn't have voted for international people.
I'm having a bit of trouble understanding exactly what you're asking for. Perhaps it would help if you clarified what you wanted out of the TalkBoard.
During the last TalkBoard term, I worked pretty closely with a member from London. The fact that he was English and from London never once that I recall entered our discussions about our ideas to improve FlyerTalk. We bounced ideas back and forth and talked about them on their merits. Geographical perspective really didn't matter.
And as for the elections--I for one didn't look at anyone else's location before voting. A few of the candidates I recognized and knew where they were from, but when I read their platforms and positional statements, their geographical location pretty much went completely unnoticed by me. I'm pretty sure that was the case for most members voting.
If you could give me an example of what sort of a decision would clearly benefit from having a member from Australia over a member from Alaska voting on it, maybe I would be able to appreciate your position a bit more.
A few points of data:
- The last four decisions implemented by the TalkBoard were in regards to issues outside the U.S.
- The last six forums to be created by the TalkBoard were for airlines based outside the U.S.
- Aside from one vote (regarding Club Carlson), the entire first page of the voting decisions forum is comprised of either non-U.S. subjects or forum-wide (non-geographic) subjects
If anything, I would say that FlyerTalk has been
broadening its international focus as of late.
And even though you weren't elected, you are always welcome to post here and/or contact TalkBoard members directly with your ideas of how FlyerTalk can be improved. If an idea is brought up that has merit, I can guarantee it will at least be discussed...and based on our current track record, there's a good chance it'll be implemented!