Interesting decision.

I missed seeing this motion and vote posted on Town Hall. And exactly who voted for it and against it.

Can someone with better eyesight than mine please post a link here to that vote?

Agreed.

For your edification:

TalkBoard Volunteer Member Description

The TalkBoard passed the following motion, 8 for and 1 against:

Volunteer Position: TalkBoard

TalkBoard (TB) is a User Advisory Council consisting of members of the community whose purpose is to provide input regarding FlyerTalk feature requests, action requests that fall outside the scope of already-established policies and procedures, and general user issues as may be directed to them by the FlyerTalk member population and the Flyer Talk host.

This board primarily discusses topics regularly via a private forum on Flyer Talk. Minutes of the TalkBoard�s activities will be made available to the community in the Town Hall portion of the web site and as needed in the TalkBoard Issues forum. The minutes may be edited to protect individual user identity and privacy, including any members of the TalkBoard itself.

The TalkBoard consists of 9 members, all of whom are chosen by popular vote of the active Flyer Talk members. The slate of Flyer Talk members who have agreed to be considered for an elected post are confirmed by personal interviews with the FlyerTalk host prior to being named to the ballot. Elected members of the TalkBoard will serve two-year terms; with no limit to the number of times one can be re-elected. It is also the privilege of the TalkBoard host to ask any single TalkBoard member to serve for an extended period of time if he so wishes, thus using his appointment privileges to extend said TalkBoard member�s term for as long as he deems appropriate..

It is the goal and intention of the FlyerTalk host that at least two members of the TalkBoard be based outside of the North American continent. This is to recognize the diverse membership and interests of the entire FlyerTalk community.

A TalkBoard President will be selected by active members of the TalkBoard, with the FlyerTalk host serving to break any ties in the voting. To preserve stability and give experience to newly-elected members, the TalkBoard President will be elected six months after the most recent popular election. The TalkBoard may also choose to elect a Vice President to work with the President to ensure timely consideration of issues, keep the parliamentary processes flowing, and provide liaison between individual TalkBoard members and the FlyerTalk host. There is no limitation to the number of times a TalkBoard member can be voted to hold either of these positions, either overall or concurrent.

TalkBoard members represent a variety of member interests and points of view, which are not always frequent flyer/stayer-related. Some may be company representatives or serve in another volunteer capacity at FlyerTalk, such as moderator of a particular forum.

It is the goal and intention of the FlyerTalk host that a TalkBoard election will take place annually. Those TalkBoard members who have served their term, and have not been asked by the Flyer Talk host to extend their term or have turned down this request, will determine the number of open spaces on the TalkBoard for the given year. Note, this may even include the necessity of either delaying or canceling the annual voting process at the Flyer Talk host�s discretion. When there is an election, all active voting members will be notified via a board announcement and email. A private voting page will be made available with candidate names, user names, and appropriate background information. Members who are elected to the TalkBoard may serve an unlimited number of successive terms.

Voting for: gleff, hfly, kempis, missydarlin, ScottC, Spiff, Starwood Lurker, Tolarian Wind

Voting against: cigarman

This vote closed on 31 August 2004.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

I believe that I read where Randy has posted that moderators are members First.
If in fact that is not the case or I read something incorrectly can someone please provide a link where becoming a moderator means ceasing to be a member.

Sure, here it is <click here>

I disagree; the time committment for either position is not that great and the sum of the two committments is still not that great.

Besides, whoever is the TalkBoard Liasion must also be a Moderator.

Let FTers decide. If you think there is a conflict of interest, then show that with your vote.

yup, agree with Analise on this one. if Talkboard is meant to be our democratically elected body, then we should get a full selection of whoever wants to run, rather than have exclusions which may prevent some of us voting for people we'd want to vote for. Ultimately, if a majority of people agree with Sean, then there won't be a majority of Moderators, and even if a majority of people don't agree, there may still not be a majority of Moderators.

Sorry, my personal opinion is that there is no conflict of interest. I always see mods as members first and frankly, my guess is that most of the thousands of members who will vote in this years elections will see them as members as well - many not even aware they are a moderator. In fact, we (I) decided to not included that information in any of the candidate registration. The fact that mods seem to get elected to the TalkBoard might bear out that the general population of FlyerTalk is quite pleased and thankful of the efforts of the mods, though we do not know if a majority of voters are aware of the volunteer roles they also contribute to FlyerTalk.

As noted, the topic has been discussed with the group before and a majority indicated that the time involved was not a discouraging factor to have both positions.

Bottom line: Let the members decide. If members think there is a potential conflict of interest, then they can choose to not vote for those candicates. Less government......

Personal opinion only.

Thank you Randy!

William

Just finished the magazine deadline and now can devote some time to catching up on all these interesting topics and questions. I only hope that some members also find time to post something about miles and points.

In principle I agree. In practice though I have no idea of how others are going to vote, so if I wanted to elect non-moderators to the Talk Board I would have to guess who were the strongest candidates among the candidates who are not currently moderators.

I think JFE, a moderator, should be the ONLY member of Talkboard.

Was going to post this long thing on my view, but WHAT RANDY SAID! sums it up for me & my viewpoint.

Cheers. Sharon

That is the craziest thing I have ever heard