Ombudsman Election 2013

Election for Two Ombudsmen for Freegle July 2013

Notification of election and call for nominations

The Freegle Ombudsmen provide a vital service for Freegle, principally overseeing and running Appeals Panels and a mediation service.

These are elected roles and both Kathy and Emma's terms of office as Ombudsman finish on 22nd August, so we need to hold an election to fill these roles. All current Freegle volunteers (owners, moderators and volunteers of Freegle groups) are eligible to vote.

All Freegle volunteers are eligible to stand and/or to nominate another Freegle volunteer for the role. Emma and Kathy are eligible to stand again if they wish and are nominated and seconded.

Any nominee already holding an elected post who wishes to stand as a candidate in this election, must stand down from their current elected post, including access to any confidential information, for the duration of the election process (ie. from the time of being accepted as a candidate to the declaration of the result of the election).

Nominations should include: the name of the nominee, an email address for the nominee and the name or URL of their principal (home) Freegle group. Any person nominated must confirm to the Returning Officer they are willing to stand for election and all nominations must be seconded by another volunteer.

Nominations and secondings should be sent to the Returning Officer no later than 23:59 on Sunday 28th July. Confirmations from the nominees, including a statement as set out below, should be sent to the Returning Officer by 23:59 on Thursday 1st August.

All communications to the Returning Officer should be sent to the returning_officer@ilovefreegle.org email address.

All nominees must submit a statement of between 225 and 275 words to the Returning Officer, giving an indication of who they are and why they would like to stand, including some background information on themselves and anything else that they think would be useful in helping voters come to a decision. The Returning Officer will list each nomination, together with the candidate's statement on Freegle Central. Once a nominee is confirmed, he/she will become a candidate.

Once the Returning Officer has confirmed the candidates, any Freegle Volunteer who has any questions for candidates can post them on Central from Friday 2nd August to Wednesday 7th August with a specific new thread for each question entitled "Ombudsman Candidate Question - subject" to which only candidates may reply.

All statements, questions and answers will be posted on this wiki page as available.

Once the Q&A time has elapsed, voting will start and the details of how to vote will be posted on Central and to groups owner addresses.

Proposed timetable

Any changes will be advised by the Returning Officer.

• Monday 22nd July - Sunday 28th July - submissions of nominations and confirmations
• Monday 29th July - confirmation of candidates and request for statements
• Thurs 1st August - deadline for submission of candidate statements
• Friday 2nd August - publish statements on wiki and call for Q&A
• Wednesday 7th August - deadline for Q&A responses
• Thursday 8th August - publish Q&A on wiki and open voting
• Saturday 17th August - last day for voting
• Sunday 18th August - completion - verification and counting of votes, announcement of successful candidates

Remit

The remit for the role can be found at Ombudsman
Other related documents are:
ORO Team Roles and Remits
Appeals Panel Procedure
Mediation Service
ORO Ending Terms of Office Procedure

Appointment

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FreegleUK-Central/message/40043 explained that as there were only two candidates, no election was held, they both were appointed to the post.

http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Elected_Roles_Autopromotion applies to this post

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