[Foundation-l] Board elections

Fri Feb 22 00:07:16 UTC 2008

On 21/02/2008, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:

>  >  > Don't forget the voting reminder emails, which worked astonishingly
>  >  > well last time but caused a lot of acrimony because they were hacked
>  >  > together at the last minute. Sorting out a plan for these in advance,
>  >  > even if it's just "leave it up to local communities", is probably
>  >  > worthwhile.
>
>  > Weren't they only sent to users on English Wikipedia, or am I completely
>  >  mistaken?
>
> I believe they were sent to users on Polish Wikipedia as well.
>
>  The answer is of course to remind all users with a valid email who are
>  eligible to vote.

Mmm, though there is a lot to be said for waiting until you're partway
into the election window and tailoring the message accordingly, rather
than firing it off at the stroke of midnight on day one.

In a previous life I ran elections for a student union (10-15k
students); we did lots of rather interesting things with online
voting, which did wonders for turnout. The biggest single feature was
the global notification emails... but we found you got surprisingly
good results by playing a dozen or so individual groups off against
each other, spinning turnout percentages almost as something of a
contest, something to take pride in. Having a named individual in each
group cracking the whip helps, too!

It sounds corny, but it works. People have corporate pride in the most
unexpected things...

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk