SP Elections: Last Chance to Vote!

The Second Pride elections end today at 12 AM (midnight) SLT. If you want a chance to influence the selection of Marketing Director and Building Director you need to get your vote in.

The candidates for Marketing Director are
1. Jimmy Augustus-Gracemount (jimmmmmy) url or
2. Kaiden Brandt (Kalculate) url

The candidates for Building Director are
1. Sтαятєя Ɛνєηѕтαяя (starter232) url or
2. Dҽʋιɳ Kɳιɠԋƚ Dɾαƙσɳ (devindevin1111) url

(The url's lead to each of the candidates statements at the Second Pride website)

How to decide whom to vote for
So how do you choose whom to vote for?

There are multiple techniques used by voters throughout democratic history to decide on whom they vote.

A) Beauty Pageant/Talent Pageant
This technique is mostly used by people who are completely uninterested in politics or ideology. They look at the pictures of the different candidates and decide on that fact alone which candidate they will vote for.

"They have beautiful hair/eyes/body/nails/feet", "They are so sexy", "I don't like their eyes, they look mean" or "I would do them", are the answers you most often get when you ask the voters how they decided.

B) Relationship
This method is usually used by voters more interested in relationships than politics/ideology. They will rather vote for someone they or their friends known and like than someone they don't know, and definitely, rather than someone they or their friends dislike for whatever transgression/reason through the history of mankind.

"I know them, they are an asshole", "They are good people", "My friend says they are batshit crazy and drama-seekers", "Their partner is a friend of my friend and they are so nice" or "variations of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend".

C) Analytical
This method is used by people who don't give a shit about anything else than if the person is qualified for the job. These are the people that will read the candidate statements and decide based mainly on that, and maybe check their references or previous work history.

"I trust they can do the job", "They seem to be qualified enough", "I've seen their work before and they seem trustworthy", "They seem to have the right priorities", "I like how they think".

D) Haphazard/Lottery
This method is good when everything else fails and you still see the choices as equally good or if all the above methods fail.

Flip a coin, and let that decide.

"I don't know any of them", "They both look great", "Both of them see qualified to do the job"
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There now you do not have an excuse not to vote. Get the f*** off your ass and teleport to the Polling Place (SLurl) at the second pride sim.

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

SP Election - Voting Resumes!

According to an announcement today on the Second Pride website (url) the voting for board directors of Second Pride now resumes.

"The Election Committee has done significant testing of our new voting solution, and believes it to be secure and reliable. Therefore, voting in the Second Pride Board Election for the positions of Marketing Director and Building Director will run from September 20th, 2018 through September 26th, 2018, a full seven day period. On September 28th, 2018, the Election Committee will certify the results and the Chair will make the announcement. Installation of the new members will be done on October 6th, 2018.

Your candidates for Marketing Director are Jimmy Augustus-Gracemount (jimmmmmy) and Kaiden Brandt (Kalculate). For the position of Building Director, the candidates are Sтαятєя Ɛνєηѕтαяя (starter232) and Dҽʋιɳ Kɳιɠԋƚ Dɾαƙσɳ (devindevin1111). Click on their names to view their candidate statements.

The Community Relations Director seat is still open with no current candidate. Per the Bylaws, the Board has the ability to name an individual to this seat, so it’s not too late to step up! If you or someone you know is interested in being a major part of Second Pride, please contact one of the Board members TODAY! It’s the perfect time to get involved!"

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I am so proud of the board for taking - what must have been a difficult decision - to halt voting when problems with security and reliability were noticed. Hopefully, the new voting procedure ensures a reliable result.

Now go do your darn civic duty as members of the organization. Go vote, you only have seven days and we all know how time flies. Remember, better early than never!!! 

Yaas, I know it should be "late", but I am the writer of this blog so I do a bit as I please. You may complain to the municipality of  Ystad at this address: 

Ystads kommun
Avdelningen för tramsiga klagomål
Box 238 
271 25 Ystad 
SWEDEN

SP Elections Update & More

REƵ VALE-SŦARFALL™ (DJReZ Cyberstar), the Chair of Second Pride, in a Group Notice yesterday in The Second Pride Festival Group and a message on the Second Pride website:

"The new voting solution will be completed soon and voting is expected to start within the next day or so. Watch here and in the Second Pride Festival group for updates and instructions.

The candidate for Community Relations Director has decided not to accept the position. Therefore, we have an open seat and per the Bylaws, that seat is available now for anyone who wishes to be considered for it. This would be a Board appointment unless we have TWO candidates before voting begins."

Elected Office

"Well, that will be a first," I thought to myself as I wrote the short statement. "I am usually anointed by God or appointed by myself to some office or other. This time there will be actual voting involved with real voters who will decide whether they can trust you or not, should be interesting if nothing else."

Bock McMillan's Candidate Statement
for a seat on the SP Board of Directors

Let the Q&A Commence!

The time for candidates to the board of Second Pride to deliver their statements has passed.

Four residents have submitted statements.
Chair - DJRez Cyberstar
Secretary - MikeAdam Resident
Events - Jamie Rozenberg
IT - Lee McKay

In my preliminary opinion they all seem to be qualified and reliable.

The time for questions and answers to the candidates has started and continue through August 26, 2017. So ask away!

You will find a link to the Second Pride website in the left column of this blog. Just click the image and it will take you to the site.

You should be able to read the statements, questions and answers without logging in, but to be able to pose questions to the candidates you must first register on the website (Top right corner) and log in. 

Whats Happening in Second Pride?

I do not fully understand what is going on within the Second Pride organization at the moment, but hopefully things will be cleared up in the near future.

Anyway, the latest notice in the Second Pride Festival Group and it's attached note card increases my confusion instead of alleviating it.

The note card is from Karl Kalchek, who in the absence of a Community Relations director on the board was asked by the board to head the Election Committee for the 2016 election. It reads as follows:

"Greetings members. 
Following our general meeting in August, a call for candidates to run for the open seats on Second Pride's Board for 2016-2017 was announced. At that board meeting I volunteered to serve to run the election as a past elections chair. The call was posted for 10 days in August after which the election would take place.

One candidate volunteered for Events Director. That candidate is Devon Zepp and we thank him for stepping forward to fill this very important position. We did not get contesting candidates for that position nor any candidates for the other open positions leaving the posts of Treasurer, IT Director, Marketing Director and Community Relations Director vacant. Because it is critical we have a Treasurer, the current treasurer Marge Beaumont has kindly volunteered to continue in this role until another Treasurer with accounting experience can be found to take her place and complete this term.

In view of this, I recommended to the Chair that Devon Zepp Be recognized as Events Director, that Marge Beaumont be recognized as continuing Treasurer, and that they join the rest of the board who are serving the remainder of their two year terms. additionally, I recommended that a general meeting be called at which the new board be recognized and installed, and that as soon as practical, that a second meeting be announced in which the board call for candidates for the remaining open board positions.

Sincerely,
Karl Kalchek, past board member"

Second Pride Elections 2015

This is an excerpt from Karl Kalchek's statement according to the minutes of the Second Pride Board meeting Saturday, August 1, 2015 at Noon SLT

"Following this year's bylaw changes which were voted upon and adopted on in open membership meetings - board positions are no longer one year terms but staggered 2 years terms. The purpose of this change was to ensure greater continuity of leadership between one year and the next.

In odd years such as 2015, the following two year positions are to be elected:

Secretary

Events

Marketing

Treasurer

Security

In even years, such as next year's 2016 Election, the following two year positions are to be elected:

Chair

Community Relations

Build

IT

Being that this is a transitional year, this year's election's will be for the one year remaining in these terms, (chair, community Relations, Build and IT) and next year's elections will be a full two year term for each of these positions. Next year's elections may also include the remaining term of any unfilled or vacated two year term (Secretary, Events, Marketing, Treasurer, Security). 2015 will be the last year that every position is elected in a single year.

Term Limits:
Pursuant to our bylaws, No Board member who has served for two consecutive years may run for a board position in the following election. Therefore Jak Calcutt, Karl Kalchek, and Marge Beaumont are ineligible to run in this year's election. Any other member of Second Pride - including past board members, may run for election. One issue that our bylaw changes did not address was a scenario where a current board member who has served one year might run for a two year term. Without further amendments, our bylaws would require that person to step down at the end of the year, and the remainder of that two your term would come up for election in next year's election. I would recommend that - this being a transitional year - we make an exception for anyone who has served a year and runs for a two year term but that is a bylaw change and will be up to the next board to decide. In the meantime, nothing prevents an eligible current board member to run for a two year term other than the possibility that the seat will have to be declared vacant after one year without a bylaw amendment.

Election Timetable and procedures:
• Candidate declarations will be accepted (...) through midnight SLT August 14th, per the by laws. 

• Only Members of the Second Pride Group and who are willing to adhere to the Second Pride by-laws if elected can be considered for candidacy. 

Candidate declaration must be accompanied by a "Candidate Statement” Declarations and statements must be submitted on the Second Pride website at second-pride.com. No one will be able to declare candidacy for the 2016 Pride board after midnight on the August 14th.

• Members will be able to question the candidates for a period beginning August 16th and ending at midnight SLT August 28th.

• On August 28th candidates may answer any remaining member questions and make their final statements

• Voting will commence at 00:01AM SLT Sunday August 30th and remain open through Midnight SLT Wednesday September 2nd.

• You must have joined the Second Pride Festival Group by midnight July 31st to be able to vote for your candidates. (Membership is now closed until the Election has concluded and the results are announced).

• Between Midnight Wednesday September 2nd and No later than Midnight September 6th, election committee will certify the results of the election and announce to the results to membership.

• On September 12th at 11AM slt The new Board will be installed and have their 1st meeting as a Board of Second Pride. The existing Board will step down at that time and any transfers (property, passwords and group ownership) will take place at that time.

Discussion Forums:• These forums are designed to allow members to question candidates in a civil and respectful manner. Comments will be moderated by the election committee and any comments or lines of questioning which, in the sole discretion of the election committee, are found to be inappropriate will be removed.

Voting Procedures:We will use the same procedure that we used last year.
• The Second Pride sim will be closed to member access only during the voting period
• Members of the Second Pride Group will need to visit an election kiosk on the Second Pride sim.
• The election kiosk will provide access to an online voting ballot where members can vote for candidates of their choice.

Eligibility to vote and voter verification:• You MUST be a member of the Second Pride Festival in-world group before midnight July 31st to be eligible to vote. Joining of the Second Pride Group will be closed for the entire election period, between July 31st through September 6th.

• The election committee will be cross referencing the online votes received against the in-world membership list. Please be sure to click on your name at the bottom of the second pride website to view and/or update your online profile. Make sure your Second Life Avatar name is part of your profile so that your vote can be verified against the in-world membership.

• Protections have been put in place to block voter fraud through the use of Alt accounts. Votes from the same IP or Mac addresses, or votes that cannot be verified against any in world membership may be removed at the discretion of the election committee. If you are in a situation where multiple users in your household will be voting from the same device or internet connection, you must inform the election committee prior to voting.

Election Committee:• The election committee reviews and certifies votes. It arbitrates any disputes that may arise during voting. The Committee consists of two permanent members (The community Relations Director and the IT Director) and volunteers:

In 2014, Bylaw changes were adopted that specify which volunteers may serve on the committed to increase people's confidence that elections would be fair.

1. The volunteer must have been a member of Second Pride for at least one year.
2. The volunteer may not be a candidate for any position in the election nor may they have an alt who is a candidate
3. The volunteer or the volunteer's alts may not have a partner or business partner who is a candidate in the election
4. The volunteer must support the Mission, Objectives and Goals of Second Pride as articulated in the bylaws,
5. The volunteer must make a statement attesting to the criterion above, which will be posted to membership.

Any volunteer meeting the criteria above will be seated. A volunteer may be removed at the discretion of the permanent members of the committee, if a volunteer is found to not meet the criteria above. If a volunteer committee member is removed under this provision, the reasons will posted to the membership and the volunteer will be given an opportunity to respond.

Second Pride Updates

I have been remiss in my self-imposed obligation to inform you, my dear readers, about what's going on in Second Pride.

In my own defense I would like to point out that due to timezone restrictions I have not been able to attend any of the meetings lately and that the Second Pride website has been down.

The website is now partly up and running again and I have the pleasure of informing you of two things.

Call for Secretary/Co-Chair
There has been a call for candidates for the position of Secretary/Co-Chair and two candidates have put their names forward.

Carson Darkstone

Andre Fyre

Please visit the Co-Chair Candidate Discussion Forum to see and join in the discussion.

General Meeting, Saturday January 24, 2015, at 10 AM SLT
The proposed agenda for this meeting is
1: Call To Order:
2: Department Reports:
    A: Chair
    B: Build:
    C: Events:
    D: Community Relations
    E: Security
    F: Treasurer Report
    G: IT
3: New Business
    A: Set Official Dates for Pride
4: Old Business
5: Board Vacancies
    A: Co-Chair Secretary Election
    B: Call for Elections for IT & Marketing
6: Motion to Adjourn

That sounds like an interesting meeting, doesn't it? And it's at a doable time for me too, so hopefully I will see ya'll there!

Fan Mail of the Day

Male avatar Y, a losing candidate in the Second Pride 2014 Board election, doesn't love me anymore it would seem.

I am so sorry to see you go, friend! (Well, not really I am just being polite - sort of...)

Ruffled Feathers

It seems that my previous post "Rumors..." has annoyed and irritated some of the candidates. I have, among other things, been accused of rumor mongering and for tarnishing the name of Second Pride.

Arlain Morrison "Ruffled Feathers II"

Today I have been asked by two different candidates (names withheld) in IM never to mention their names on my blog again. I have replied that if they get elected to the board of Second Pride they will most likely be mentioned from time to time in the future. To one of them I also added that I would most certainly mention his/hers name if he/she was elected and then immediately resigned.

My intention with the post was simply to remind the candidates what they had promised us voters during the campaign, not to hurt their delicate feelings.

Harmony vs. Discord

Today I read an interesting post by Spike Clémenceau-Silent on his blog Sex & Second Life. The post is entitled Gossip, Pride, Lies, half truths and other monsters.

In the post Spike makes an analysis of this years Second Pride campaign and the shortcomings we have witnessed in the process and or the candidates or their followers, and what he believes are the shortcomings of Second Pride.as a concept, or as Spike calls it "a plattform". Spike concludes his post with these words "If you really want to do some change and do some good, do the hard work and leave the dirty politics and drama, to those who only seek recognition and praise."

I agree with much of what Spike has to say concerning what we have seen during the campaign from anonymous bloggers, alts in the forums etc. Some of the people in the forums (and many other places too) have been eager to air dirty laundry of one or the other candidate and have shown an inability to separate between the candidate's personal lives and hers/his actions, opinions, thoughts and ideas. Of course the candidates historical activity and opinions matter when we try to decide whether or not we can or should trust them, but that doesn't mean we want to hear from all their ex-lovers airing their grievances or other similar mudslinging.

However, I fundamentally disagree with Spike's conclusions. I do not believe that discord is something bad or evil, that politics are dirty or that the clash of ideas and opinions are inherently bad or are worthy to be labeled "drama", the word we all dread so much in the harmony-centric world of SecondLife. I wrote a post about this about a year and a half ago, please read it, Should SecondLife be "Pleasantville"?.

In short I believe in Second Pride. I also believe in elected officers and a democratic election process where the candidates need to inform the electorate about their visions and ideas and have to answer tough questions about their past activities and statements.

Lack of agreement concerning thoughts and ideas and the clash of these are in no way to be written off as "drama", they are a necessary process in deciding whom we vote for and how we wish Second Pride to develop in the future.

Harmony kills, stifles and blends everything into a grey porridge with fake smiles and fake cordiality! Harmony is also bloody boring!

I Voted Today!

I voted in the election for the Second Pride board of 2014 today, at the earliest possible opportunity for me. As I had followed the forums and other activities closely during the campaign it was not difficult at all for me to decide whom I should vote for.

For a while I contemplated sharing how I voted for the different candidates with you, but I decided against it. I did so mainly because I did not want to influence you one way or the other.

Whom you vote for is a matter for you alone to decide. We trust or distrust people for a huge variety of different reasons and we all have our individual preferences and personal visions for the future of Second Pride.

All I ask of ya'll is that you do your part now and cast your votes. Your vote matters! And oh, just one more thing, rest assured the world will still spin and Second Pride will still survive whatever the outcome will be.

Be Responsible, Go Vote & Be Proud!

I Am Totally Biased!

Recently I and my poor little blog have gained some attention due to my posts concerning the upcoming Second Pride election.

I have received messages and emails asking me to post this or that "to prove" that I am unbiased and objective. It is totally beyond me how anyone can think I am unbiased or even attempting to be that.  I am a blogger, not a journalist. Every post I run is something I myself find interesting and have an opinion about, which I in rare cases choose not to share with you. Usually however I will tell you what I believe, think or feel in no uncertain terms.

In this election I have asked the candidates certain questions that I believe are relevant and pertinent. I have done so respectfully and with no interest whatsoever of "bashing" them or making personal attacks in anyway. Despite this I have, more than once, been accused of bashing or personally attacking some candidates, sometimes even by the candidates themselves.

I have also been asked or told - anonymously or straightforwardly - to ask a certain candidate something or other. I have always refused to do so because I am not a mouthpiece for anyone but myself,. If someone else wishes to ask a question they should do so themselves.

I of course realize that others do not always agree with me, and however distasteful I may find their views I will allow them to comment on my blog as long as they stick to the issue and don't attack other commenters or people, should they wish to launch a personal attack at me they are welcome to do so.  I have only ever removed one (1) real comment and several hundred spam comments. The real comment I removed was a personal attack on an avatar and had no relevance to the post at all. Even the four Swedish female avatars that I utterly detest, can and have indeed left comments here even if I have expressly asked them never to do so.

In spite of this I today received an acidic message in private on Facebook from someone whom I thought was a friend, thanking me for permitting him "to leave a comment on (my) magnanimous blog". This totally irked me.

So be warned, I am opinionated and totally biased. Always!