Still Shattered &Disillusioned

Following the American presidential election and Brexit referendum in Great Britain has now given me a sound skepticism towards opinion polls. I will never trust their results again,

Ever since I saw the final results in both these elections my thought wander off to somehow come up with as viable explanation - I am getting nowhere and then I just feel a great sadness.

I have to leave it behind or I will go crazy.

We Will Survive!

I stayed up all night yesterday, following the elections in the USA. I was engulfed in a weird unreal feeling as time passed by. This couldn't be happening, it wasn't supposed to happen...

Well, it did happen and we must accept the results, however devastated or petrified we feel about them at this moment for the future of the American people or the world. An isolationist America is not what the world needs and we cannot let America slip into the grasp of the Russian bears warm and welcoming hug.

The election revealed an extremely divided America. Whites against people of color, men against women, old against young, uneducated against educated, straight against LGBT. Even the winners, the Republicans are severely divided. There is much that has been gained over the last 25 years that is at risk of being lost, universal health care (whatever deficiencies that still remain to be  corrected), same-sex marriages, a woman's right to decide what happens with her body, family planning etc., etc.

But I still remain hopeful and believe and hope that my American friends and family - after the first initial shock and devastation has ebbed out - will cooperate and form alliances to fight back at every turn and every step of the way.

The rest of us must encourage them and give them whatever support we can. The dinosaurs and the macho white supremacists will not prevail.

At the risk of being perceived as extremely cheesy...

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 Website Online Again

I am glad to report that the Second Pride website is online again. You must re-register to log in.

However, apart from that happy news, I am also sad to report that it seems that a spammer has already gotten in - and perhaps more of them. There are at this time 126 registered members, including myself, whether or not the other 125 are legitimate or not I really cannot say.

An avatar named WilzavrFeed (the one that shows online on the picture above) has already spammed the election section with 51 posts totally without relevance to the board election.

I tried to find any legitimate posts concerning the election but am sorry to say I gave up. Hopefully the board will find a way of dealing with these issues in a speedy and efficient way.

It Works Now, But... (Updated)

The Second Pride website crashed spectacularly a while back.

Work has since been going on to revive it again. There seems to be some progress as this is what I got when I just tried.

However, even if it will be in order soon - according to the original timeframe decided upon - the candidate statements should have been posted there on August 31, 2016, and there was to be a questions and comments period going on right now until the evening today. 

The actual voting should start tomorrow and go on until wednesday, if the board doesn't decide anything else considering the unforeseeable server-crash. 

I strongly encourage the board to first see to it that the website is up and in working order, then decide on a new timeframe for the elections. After all the eligible voters have not been able to know who the candidates are or to pose questions to them.

Update (after a fast response from the board of directors)

I have been informed that work is feverishly going on on the new website (they have to work from scratch).
LLedge Eames, the chair of SP, and Karl Kalchek, the chair of the election committee, after a discussion yesterday, agreed that the goal is to post candidate statements during this weekend. The timeline for the election will be adjusted, once they have access to the  website.
The candidates that have stepped forward have been informed of the above.
Viktor Sandamn, the secretary of Second Pride, will post a notice concerning this to the Second Pride Festival Group today.

SP Election 2016 Schedule and More

This is from a notecard sent by Viktor Sandman in the Second Pride Festival group and concerns the upcoming election of members to the board of Second Pride. (I have edited it only slightly for various reasons, hence there are no quotation marks except on the first part.) The process has been somewhat delayed by the server crash of the Second Pride-website.

"It is time for our annual elections to fill vacant positions in the Second pride board of directors. We are also seeking volunteers to serve on the election committee.

Please read the attached notecard and follow the information given if you are interested in volunteering, or if you would like to run for one of the open seats on the board.

Thank you for your interest,

Seco"


Please click on "Read more" for additional information.

Second Pride Annual Meeting 2016

Through a notice in the Second Pride Festival group the membership has been notified that the Annual Meeting of Second Pride will be held on Saturday August 13, 2016, at 12PM (noon) SLT at the Second Pride Headquarters Conference Hall (SLurl).

The meeting has the following agenda.
1. Call to Order
2. Department Reports
3. Elections
4. Adjournment

The most interesting parts of this meeting should be the announcement of the results of the latest Pride Festival and the timeline for the upcoming election of new directors.

Vote! Vote! Vote!

It's time to perform your civic duties once again!

Go vote for next year's board of directors of Second Pride.

Here is your landmark to the Voting Booth at the Second Pride sim! (Link updated! Thanks Petr and Kahvy!)

Voting is open through Wednesday (SLT)

P.S. Parts of this post was mistakenly posted yesterday evening (CET), I don't function properly when I am tired.

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, Annual Meeting - Saturday August 1 @ 12 PM SLT

From a group notice in the Second Pride Festival group.

Please be informed the Board of Directors of Second Pride will hold their "Annual General Meeting (AGM)" in the Second Pride Headquarters Conference Hall (SLurl) on Saturday August 1, 2015, 12:00 PM SLT.

The proposed agenda for the meeting is as follows

1. Call To Order
2. Department Reports
    - Chair
    - Build
    - Events
    - Community Relations
    - Security
    - Treasurer Report
    - IT
3. Elections Procedures
4. Adjourn

Damn!

The Democrats were slaughtered in yesterdays midterm elections in the U.S.A. The Republicans won a majority in both the house and the senate.

The above picture comes from the first page of Huffington Post, via J.M.G.

Damn, damn, damn! And did I say damn?

SP Elections 2014: The Results Are In

This years Second Pride election results are in. As all the candidates to the board ran unopposed the voter turnout was, as could be expected, extremely low and easy to certify for the Election Committee.

The newly elected members to the Second Pride Board of Directors are

Ezzie Mirabella
Secretary & Co-Chair

Marge Beaumont
Treasurer

LLedge Eames
Events Director

Karl Kalchek
Community Relations Director

Jak Calcutt
Building Director

Sutry
Security Director

The board will assume office at the upcoming board meeting on Saturday September 13, 2014, at 11 AM SLT. At this time all powers will be transferred from the resigning to the elected officers.

The first order of business for the newly elected board should be to decide how to handle the vacancy on the position of Chairperson and after that on the remaining vacant seats on the board (Marketing and Communication/IT).

The SP Election 2014: Some Reflections

The Second Pride elections this year are well underway, the candidates have declared themselves and the discussion has started in the Second Pride discussion forum (url). The forum will be closed at midnight Friday August 29th, so head on over and join in.

There are six candidates for the nine positions on the Second Pride board, all the six candidates are running unopposed. This, however, doesn't mean that there aren't some interesting complications.

Let me start by informing you about this years line-up. After that I will share some of my thoughts on the situation.

As I said, there are nine positions according to the bylaws

1. Chairman
No candidate

2. Secretary & Co-Chair

Ezziedq "Ezzie" Mirabella
New election








3. Treasurer

Marge Beaumont
Reelection








4. Events Director

LLedge Eames
New election








5. Community Relations Director

Karl Kalchek
Reelection








6. Building Director

Jak Calcutt
Reelection








7. Security Director

Sutry
Reelection








8. Marketing Director
No candidate

9. Communication/IT Director
No candidate

---

My first reaction, when I saw the candidates that had declared themselves, was sadness and astonishment that there were not more candidates and not candidates to all positions on the board.

On second thought, however, I realized that it is a major undertaking to commit oneself to a year long duty of service to the LGBT community in SecondLife. As a candidate one promises the electorate that - if elected - one has the ability and willingness to put ones time and efforts to the cause of Second Pride. Many of us have restrictions set by family, work or health that prevent us from making such a commitment, we should therefore cherish and be grateful to those that are able and willing.

Another reason for the lack of candidates must certainly be the ugliness that occurred before, during and after the last election. Even if someone was willing and able to run, they must have considered the slander, the backstabbing and the malicious rumor mongering that has occurred repeatedly in our community over the last year. It takes a special kind of brave person to risk having their first and second lives scrutinized, exposed and/or maligned by anonymous or semi-anonymous "detectives", blogs and avatars on social media, especially since it is virtually impossible - or extremely complicated - to hold them accountable in criminal or civil action.

My second reaction was a feeling of reassurance and gratitude that four of the board members of the previous board had been brave and strong enough to decide to run again. All four have proven their capacity for the job in the past difficult year when Second Pride was at the brink of imploding completely through the undermining work of the destructive forces. I also welcome the new candidates, Ezzie and LLedge. Fresh blood with new thoughts and ideas are valuable for any organization that wishes to evolve and move with the times.

Although all the present candidates can now be certain of being elected as they are running unopposed and it only takes one vote to get elected, which I will supply if no one else does, there is the matter of the three vacant positions to consider. Most important of these is the position of chairperson. My friend Dodo Ahanu has raised the question in the discussion forum and has asked the candidates how they view the vacancy on this position.

I don't entirely share the views that have been expressed in the discussion forum and would therefore like to give you my interpretation of the situation, which is not entirely covered by the bylaws as a situation like this has not been foreseen.

In my opinion, based on what is available in the bylaws and a general knowledge of rules governing associations, this is how the situation of the vacancy on the chair position should be handled.

First of all we need to recognize that even if the position of chairperson is only one of the nine board members, this position is special. The chair is "first among equals", with a special significance and special powers. We then also must recognize that there is a difference between a general election and a by-election.

An association must have a chairperson and this chairperson should be elected in a general election. I have no qualms whatsoever about the positions of Marketing Director or Communication/IT Director being filled in a by-election after a "call for directors" by the elected board, but that is not acceptable for the position of chairperson.

After the general election we will have a vacancy in the position of chairperson, but we will have elected a Secretary/co-Chair, whose job description contains stepping in as chairperson if there is none. As an association must have a chairperson, the elected Co-Chair therefore automatically becomes chairperson.

The board then, through a "call for directors" has to fill the position of Secretary/Co-Chair along with the other two other vacant positions.

I would appreciate your thoughts and input on my reasoning.

Report from the SP Annual Meeting 2014

Due to a busy first and SecondLife I have not been able to post a report from the Annual Meeting of Second Pride earlier, but here are a summary of my impressions.

For the minutes from the meeting and a full running transcript, please visit Second Pride; Second Pride Annual Meeting Minutes July 19, 2014.

Marge Beaumont, Karl Kalchek, Sutry, Petr Hastings-Vanbeeck, Kharissa Indigo & Baz Ceawlin

We started off with the department reports.

Chair - Petr thanked all that had volunteered their time and done a great job for Second Pride. He also reminded us all that the organization relies on volunteerism.

Treasurer - Marge gave us a summary of the financial status, in short all is well and the finances are in good order. (As a personal observation let me say that I believe that Marge may have been in contact with Esme Capelo concerning her presentation, as you see from the example below she used cute cats.) 

Community Relations - Karl informed us that the membership had increased with 25% over the year. He also reminded us that we should be proud of this year was an increasing diversity of the vendors, sponsors, and performers who were part of Second Pride Festival this year. There were many new sponsors and many sponsors who returned after leaving Second Pride for one reason or another over the years.

Security - Sutry reported that there had only been a few griefers that had been swiftly dealt with by the excellent volunteers on the security committee. 

Events - Khar informed us that working with the sponsors created some new and different ideas in this area, by combining main stage events with other stages and settings throughout the entire festival grounds highlighting each unique area. We also had our first King and Queen pageant, 57 DJ’s, a live band, a rock concert and some very talented live singers. This year having an interactive website and a Festival Guide with detailed information about the vendors and events was very helpful, as well as having the DJ’s register online. Having less stages then last year and list of availability of DJ’s on line made it much easier and faster to make the schedule. Kharissa concluded by leaving a short list of suggestions to the coming board.

IT - Baz told us that the Event survey had received about 45 responses from festival attendees. The vast majority or the responses have been Good to Excellent. The breakdown was:
Excellent 48%
Good 34%
Neutral 9%
Poor 5%
Terrible 5%
There were many constructive comments and suggestions made.. the survey will be summarized and passed on to next years board.
---

Next we moved on to the question of proposed recipients of donations. A committee has been formed to decide criteria for worthy recipients of donations from Second Pride. The committee will make recommendations to the full board. A method to garner input from the community on where the money should ultimately be dispersed will be made soon.

The meeting next covered the election time table and procedures, among others

• Election procedures will be posted the Second Pride website on July 19th
• Candidate declarations will be accepted from July 31st through midnight SLT August 14th, per the by laws.
• Voting will commence at 00:01 AM September 1st and remain open through midnight September 4th.
• You must have joined the Second Pride Festival Group by midnight July 31st to be able to vote for your candidates.
• 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.
• 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, July 31st through September 6th.
• Protections have been put in place to block voter fraud through the use of Alt accounts. If you are in a situation were multiple users in your household will be voting from the same device or internet connection, you must inform the election committee prior to voting.

Four proposals for changes in the by-laws were made, in attempts to remedy known problems.

The meeting then stood for one minute of silence in memory of the victims of Flight MH-17, which included over 100 AIDS researchers en route to a conference in Australia. (Picture above)

A call for volunteers to an election committee was made. If you are interested in participating and fulfill the requirements (see the minutes) send a notecard to Karl Kalchek.

Next meeting will be on Saturday August 2nd at 11 AM SLT.

---

All in all it was an unusually long and intense meeting with many interesting subjects. The meeting was conducted in an orderly fashion under the excellent guidance of our chairperson.

A New Beginning

After the SP2014 board elections and the devastation it caused in the relations between different groups in the LGBT community of SecondLife the week following the announcement of the new board of directors has been rife with hurt feelings, bitterness and name calling. Today however I saw a few hopeful signs that a healing process may have begun. 

First I was contacted by a person who was hurt by my blogging of the election. Instead of lashing out at me this time he took the time to explain to me with calm and great care why he had been hurt in a way that I could understand. I explained to him my position and that I never had any intention of hurting anyones feelings but merely to give my personal view on the events. Although we did not say so explicitly, I feel we may perhaps have made a lasting truce.

Later in the day my attention was directed to some wonderful initiatives by Karl Kalchek, the incoming Community Relations Director.

Even before he gets installed on the Second Pride board tomorrow, Karl has started building bridges. A first step was been taken by him in establishing a blog Second Pride Community Relations. (I have added it to my blogroll for your future convenience.)

On the blog Karl tells us why he took this step:

"The purpose of this blog is to create a forum where ideas about increasing diversity and improving Second Pride can be discussed. My hope is for a frank but positive conversation about why some parts of our community feel excluded, unwelcome, or disinterested.

To me, community building is at the very heart of any LGTB effort – including Second Pride. But community building is not something that one person – or even a Board -can do. To be successful, change has to have the support of the community. Through this blog I am asking for your support: Your ideas, your contacts – your knowledge of what’s worked or not worked in the past. With the help of the community, I hope we can not make Second Pride not just bigger but better for everyone in the community."

The second step - and this is really awesome news - Karl reached out to Joshua Drew, one of his contenders in the election, and asked him to Co-Chair with him. And lo and behold, Joshie accepted the offer! I cannot commend the two enough.

I share the same hopes as Joshie tells us about in his comment to this announcement on the Community Relations blog on why he accepted the position:

"I am happy to accept Karl’s offer to be his Co-Chair/Co-Director in Community Relations. He and I compliment each other very well because we have different strengths and are tied to different communities. Karl is considered a “Bear” and me a “Twink” – yet here we are, great friends who respect each other and want to work together to actually build the bridges and communities ties that all of the candidates talked about during the campaign.

SecondPride was never meant to be an all “Gay Male Club” that throws a big Pride event once a year. Through our partnership, right out of the gate from the election, we hope to send a message to the LGBT Community that we welcome everyone. Now, I am happy to throw all of my support behind Karl and work with him as a team to make SecondPride much more inclusive and even more successful than ever before."

On Kyle's List

Yesterday after the results of the election had been posted  Kyle Beckett, the Co-Chair/Secretary of the outgoing board of SP2013 for some inexplicable reason saw fit to publish this post on several people's Facebook pages.

"Just got done reviewing the login records for the Second Pride website and comparing them to the voters list. These are the names of members who logged into the website during the election and DID NOT have a vote registered. If your on this list and did not put in a manual ballot, then no votes were counted from you. The more you know..."

Kyle Beckett's list

This is the list of names that Kyle Beckett published, it contains 45 names.

As one of the members of the election committee, who had gone through the list several times I immediately saw that Kyle Beckett's post and the list he posted contained several errors or erroneous information.

Below I have reviewed Kyle's list with the last list I received as a member of the committee and with the list of members in the Second Pride Festival group on August 4, 2013.

8 persons on Kyle Beckett's list had their votes registered and were in fact counted.
1. Avacar Bluestar
2. Brian Lindman
3. Gage Furman
4. Galileo Michalski
5. Hank Ramos
6. Lemondo Oh
7. Pabs Manx
8. Ricco Saenz

Throughout the election process the following message was posted on the Second Pride website:

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR MEMBERS You MUST be a member of the Second Pride in-world group before Midnight August 4th to be eligible to vote. 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 this screen [on the second-pride.com website, my remark] 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.

Despite this some voters were not members in the group at midnight August 4th and some members did not update their profiles with the necessary information to separate them from others in group. 

4 persons on Kyle Beckett's list did not belong to the Second Pride Festival Group on the specified date to be eligible to vote
1. Asyousay (Ransom B Halcyone)
2. Cody Bolero
3. Grunt Cheveyo
4. Joseph Nussbaum

1 person did not leave additional information required to identify himher or there were several matches in the group 
1. JJ on the Second Pride website could possibly be JJuray on Kyle Beckett's list, but there are at least two JJ's in the Second Pride group.it was not possible to know which of these - if any - from the information provided.

As you see from the above it would seem that Kyle Beckett was comparing the results of his check-up with an erroneous list, a list that was not the one that the election committee worked with at the end.

1 person did not/could not vote as his first life partner had already voted and the IP-address was blocked to prevent the use of alt-voting
Ziggy Starsmith (see his blog for information on this)

That leaves us with 31 names on Kyle's list that need to be explained.

I have come up with the following three possible reasons, there may of course be more.
a) The people logged in during voting time but chose not to vote. The mere fact that someone logged into the website does not mean, as Kyle tries to imply in his post, that they in fact did vote.
b) The people who voted made a mistake so that their votes were not registered or
c) There was a technical malfunction on the website so that their votes were not registered.

Now let us ask ourselves what motivated Kyle Beckett to
1) check who had logged in to the Second Pride website during the time of voting?
2) to  post the results of his findings in the way he did?

I have information from three different sources that Kyle Beckett has a close first life relationship with one of the candidates of this years election. That candidate lost in the election.

I do not at all find it strange that Kyle would wish to support his first life contact, but I question if he should not have supported his contact personally and emotionally at this difficult time in that persons life instead of bringing the whole election and Second Pride into disrepute. It is especially difficult for me to understand this as both Kyle Beckett and the candidate whom he has a first life relationship with previously have talked profusely about how they support Second Pride and the LGBT community no matter what.

It could perhaps also be interesting and even mind boggling - for those clamouring and shouting out their disgust at this time - to ask themselves if they truly believe that Kyle Beckett would have put so much energy, work and time into this if the candidates he presumably supported had won the election?

Meanwhile I am wondering who the hell gave Kyle Beckett access to a spreadsheet he should not have access to as he was not on the election committee and not one of the two directors leading the committee. And also how the hell he could access the website to gather the information when as I understand it the access to the website should have been limited to the Security Director and the first life consultant who helped with the election.

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...)

The New SP2014 Board

The results of the elections of the SP2014 Board of directors were announced at midnight. The new board will consist of the following members.

Chairman:: Damien Tar

Dextrum Boucher - 70 votes (48 %)
Damien Tar - 76  (52,%)

Secretary/Co-Chair::  Petr Vanbeeck
Andy Long - 65 votes (46 %)
Petr Vanbeeck - 75 votes (54 %)

Treasurer:: SquirtN Wonder
SquirtN Wonder - 123 votes (unopposed)

Events Director:: Hotboy Skytower
Female avatar X - 70 votes (48 %)
Hotboy Skytower - 75 votes (52 %)

Community Relations Director:: Karl Kalchek
Male avatar Y - 46 votes (32 %)
Karl Kalchek - 68 votes (48 %)
Joshie Drew - 29  votes (20 %)

Building Director:: Mr Gracemount
Mr Gracemount - 121 (unopposed)

Security Director; Gaius Tripsa
Gaius Tripsa - 120  (unopposed)

Marketing Director::  Tylo Mabellon
Tylo Mabellon - 121 (unopposed)

Communications/IT Director:: Jaggy Naughton 

Jagger Naughton - 127 (unopposed)

My congratulations to the winners, it was a close race but you made it. I also wish to thank those candidates who also ran for making this election so interesting.

The new board will be installed on August 18, 2013, at 11AM SLT and have their first meeting as a board of Second Pride. The existing Board will step down at that time and any transfers will take place at that time.

Special note. The candidates mentioned above as "Female candidate X" and "Male candidate Y" have expressly asked me to never mention their names again on my blog (for Y that restriction also includes never showing his picture). As none of them won their race I see no need to mention them at this time.

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.

Rumors...

As we are getting close to the end of the voting period the air is rife with rumors of what may or may not happens once the results are declared. The last days the tumors have mostly been along this line "if so-and-so doesn't get elected to this or that position (usually chairperson) X, Y and maybe even Z will resign from the board even if they have been elected"

I sure as hell hope that the rumors are untrue, because if that should indeed happen the persons resigning from the board will have proved themselves to be blatant and shameless liars and completely untrustworthy persons who didn't give a damn about Second Pride or the LGBT community in SecondLife at all, but were intent on making Second Pride their own little roadshow for a year.

I would especially like to urge the two running for chairperson of the board to see to it that anything along these lines doesn't happen, because I - and I believe a large part of the community - will hold them responsible.

Below I have listed how the candidates responded in part to my question about "a ticket".

Dextrum Boucher: "I will of course work with whoever is elected, this is a basic principle of democracy. Once the election is over, we pull together and put the will of the people to work."

Damian Tar: "No I have not formed an alliance of any sort formally or informally."

Andy Long:  "I have not even made recommendations to my friends as to who they should vote for, just that they should choose and vote for the person they feel is the best candidate. I feel like we should stand on our own merits and qualifications, and as such, i have tried to ally myself with all the candidates, and not just a select few."

Petr Vanbeeck: "I feel that I can work anyone who is elected. And will do my best to accomplish that."

SquirtN Wonder: "I am not part of a ticket"

Mz Marville: "...there was discussion about the formation of a ticket. However, a formal ticket was not utilized..."

Hotboy Lockjaw: "As far as i know there is no official or unofficial ticket. All we can do is support other members of the board if we are elected."

Garrett Ceriano: "... this list is not evidence that we don't believe the others are not excellent candidates. There are other candidates that I would enjoy working with. I know other candidates on the list would love to as well."

Karl Kalchek: "... if elected we would work together, and I meant it."

Joshie: "I have absolutely NOT formed any ticket nor have I reached out to create any type of “arrangement” with anyone else running in the Second Pride Board Elections."

Mr G: "I will work with whomever gets elected Bock. I shall try to do it productively – but until you actually work with someone that cannot be answered in a simple yes or no."

Gaius Tripsa: "I look forward to working with the new Board members, whoever the voters select, for the good of the LGBT community and the Second Pride Festival."

Tylo Mabellon:  "I’ll work with whoever is voted to the Board this year regardless of the outcome. I wish everyone well in the election!!"

Jaggy: "In no way, shape or form have I ever considered myself part of some alliance or ticket. The community should be THE alliance…every friggin’ segment of it"