Originally Posted by summer

....

The fact that they posted the election results as an image. Who does that? They obviously worked with a spreadsheet program so a simple copy and paste would have sufficed. Any 5 year old can do that nowadays.

I didn't say they were doing a bad job. If you inferred that, then maybe you're not that pleased with the way things happen either. Like I said, it doesn't take a technical genius to copy and paste a table.

I'm with the poster who suggested the MSU hire Chad to help them out. Get your heads out of your asses and actually get a website that's easy to navigate and whose navigation is intuitive even to those outside of the full-membership of the MSU (i.e. the BoD / exec) and the SRA.

Originally Posted by fullsmash26

The numbers show organization is key. A large organized campaign team makes a difference as well as getting out the vote. Singh did a great job of pushing people to the polls.

The MSU should a great deal of discipline this year in making sure everyone in the organization knew exactly who their candidate was. Tiwari benefitted strongly from having a campaign team which was largely composed of MSU employees/SRA members who could take time away from their jobs to campaign for him.

The question for next year, will those outside the MSU looking for reform become as organized and make it a true race?

Just a quick correction Joey.

As a person involved in the MSU, i can tell you that not everybody wanted Vishal. Elvikis is the current finance commissioner of the SRA, Joy is a former SRA member, and Terry is the MSU PR assistant. Hopper was also an MSU employee. I know and think highly of all of them (I know many in the MSU were torn between them/other candidates).

I, along with three others, organized Vishal's campaign. As an SRA member, I'm also a full time student (I get no year off), and I sacrificed school, my social life, and pretty much all my spare time over the past four weeks to organize an effective campaign.

I'm sorry if you're unhappy with the result, and you're absolutely right that the key to winning the MSU Presidency is a well organized campaign team.

However, the membership of the campaign was mostly non-MSU employees (Vish's/my friends). Nobody on the team had any special advantage in terms of "availability" (except for Vishal himself), and everybody made sacrifices to ensure that this was a victory.

We won because we had an *extremely* dedicated team (who I'm extremely proud of), not because of some huge insider conspiracy. Not everyone in the MSU supported Vishal.

Originally Posted by DannyV

The fact that they posted the election results as an image. Who does that? They obviously worked with a spreadsheet program so a simple copy and paste would have sufficed. Any 5 year old can do that nowadays.

I didn't say they were doing a bad job. If you inferred that, then maybe you're not that pleased with the way things happen either. Like I said, it doesn't take a technical genius to copy and paste a table.

I'm with the poster who suggested the MSU hire Chad to help them out. Get your heads out of your asses and actually get a website that's easy to navigate and whose navigation is intuitive even to those outside of the full-membership of the MSU (i.e. the BoD / exec) and the SRA.

With all that time you spent complaining you could have been entering the data manually and pasting it as a table for all of us to see.

Danny, in my opinion, I feel as though a five-year-old could navigate that website. Upon accessing the home page, I was able to access the election results in two clicks.

Creating the position of another VP would use student money and we know everyone hates when the MSU does things like spend money.

Danny I think you are more than welcome to come down to the MSU office, speak to the web admin and express your concern on the MSU website. Furthermore, I think it would be great if you volunteer your time with the elections committee to create an MSU elections website. In conclusion, you are encouraged to actively take part in student government instead of bitching about it.

Since (from my observations of all your posts) you are following in the footsteps of Mr Coleman in criticizing (cirticising) the MSU ( except the fact that in this case you are actually a member / associate member of the corporation and he is not), take the time to try and improve the student organization. Run in the upcoming General election as an SRA member. Get YOUR head out of YOUR ass and DO SOMETHING instead of complaining. This goes for everyone else as well.

To try to keep relevant to the topic at hand... Congratulations Mr Tiwari on your victory.

Originally Posted by nogood205

With all that time you spent complaining you could have been entering the data manually and pasting it as a table for all of us to see.

Danny, in my opinion, I feel as though a five-year-old could navigate that website. Upon accessing the home page, I was able to access the election results in two clicks.

Creating the position of another VP would use student money and we know everyone hates when the MSU does things like spend money.

Danny I think you are more than welcome to come down to the MSU office, speak to the web admin and express your concern on the MSU website. Furthermore, I think it would be great if you volunteer your time with the elections committee to create an MSU elections website. In conclusion, you are encouraged to actively take part in student government instead of bitching about it.

Since (from my observations of all your posts) you are following in the footsteps of Mr Coleman in criticizing (cirticising) the MSU ( except the fact that in this case you are actually a member / associate member of the corporation and he is not), take the time to try and improve the student organization. Run in the upcoming General election as an SRA member. Get YOUR head out of YOUR ass and DO SOMETHING instead of complaining. This goes for everyone else as well.

To try to keep relevant to the topic at hand... Congratulations Mr Tiwari on your victory.

lolumad?


or are you just danny's dad now?

Originally Posted by steps2health

lolumad?


or are you just danny's dad now?

.....


What?

I think what nogood25 meant was that if everyone that complains on an on-line forum (dont get me wrong Chad, I love MI), would maybe actually do something to get involved, then we would be better off.

If people continue to voice their opinions, change would be possible within student government. The problem is that certain individuals who think that because they have an egotistical blog on a website it makes them the all-knowing power of McMaster. If the election process is merely a popularity contest, is that why certain people are intimidated away from candidacy themselves?

When people speak out against campaign platforms it just reaffirms that no one wants to step up and change, and then when worthy candidates aim for change they get put down and insulted. A sense of community is necessary. If people have such a problem with the way things are at McMaster, either find another school or put yourselves in the limelight and put forth worthy solutions.

When people speak out against campaign platforms it just reaffirms that no one wants to step up and change, and then when worthy candidates aim for change they get put down and insulted.

While I agree that when people sit back and blindly criticize the MSU it can be destructive it is entirely necessary to look critically at it at the same time. I think it is naive to say that none of the other candidates or their supporters who spoke out against anything Vishal has said were unwilling to step up and try to change things. In addition, I understand with beurocracy it is very diffiicult for someone to come from the "outside" and propose change, especially anything substantial. As a member of the SRA the process and channels proposals need to go through is quite clear however if you are not familiar with the system, approaching the SRA with a proposal is a very difficult task to accomplish successfully.

And on another note, some of those who speak out against platforms sometimes just do not have the means to influence a generous amount of change. Even though the process to become, say MSU president, is easy at face value, when you factor in time committments, coordinating a team etc, running for MSU president is a full time obligation, and this is assuming you have both the personal and presentational skills needed in a public figure. It is easy to tell people to change, just as easy as it is to tell someone what you disagree with, however we elect people to implement the change we ask for, if everyone could change things themselves, then why elect someone?

If people have such a problem with the way things are at McMaster, either find another school or put yourselves in the limelight and put forth worthy solutions.

Again like I said not everyone can run for MSU president. Not everyone has groundbreaking ideas. But people have opinions, people have expectations. Someone may say they don't approve of how the MSU spends their money, and they would rather keep it for themselves, how do you promote change there? Since, as a student, you are obliged to pay an MSU fee, should it be that ridiculous that they expect a standard from their leaders? And if they don't meet that standard, should be subject to opinions and crisiticism?

Originally Posted by Dave.Moore

The answer is yes. There is ample precedent for multiple candidacies.

Freeman Scott (won 1898, won 1903)
Brian Lenglet (1968, won 1969)
Harley Steubing (1973, won 1974)
Mel Dobrasyan (1975, 1976)
Peter Hutton (1976, 1978)
Gary King (1978, 1979)
Alex Daschko (1979, won 1980, won 1981)
Greg Crone (1980, 1981)
Gord Stirrett (1983, won 1984, 1985)
Mike Cameron (1988, 1989)
Mark Fuller (1994, 1995)
Geoff Ritchie (won 1996, 1997)
Matt Armstrong (1999, 2000)
Steve Ewoniak (1998, 2001)
Sam Minniti (2000, won 2001)
Neville Boney (2001, won 2003)
Shano Mohan (2003, won 2004)
John Popham (2005, won 2006)

Good to know...I might just decide to do that.

What I'm trying to get across is that if people do not have the time commitment, public speaking skills, or personal drive to actually run for MSU president, they could lobby for change within the school and be a visible face on campus instead of hiding behind a screen name or blog site. MSU president is an extremely high profile position on campus, and it is no wonder that such an honour would be hard for some to grasp.

The true message is that in order to have a new MSU, there needs to be constructive input, student involvement and transparency. Not more blog sites or hate mail, just more positivity.

Originally Posted by ladyh

Why was Hopper declared "out of race" in Round Six? What was the EC ruling on that? I can't find it anywhere.

Terry and Hopper were tied for last in that round with 255. The EC ruled that Hopper had less first place votes, and the least votes in all other rounds and should be dropped next. The ruling was over who to drop.

Quote:
Let me posit a little theory here:

Indian person goes to the ballot without knowing anything about the candidates.

Sees name Joy Singh.

Votes Singh.

Hell I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the voters think Joy is a girl. Poor Terry and Hopper, I was really hoping one of them would win.

Look at the number of abstains after Singh's elimination. It jumps from 260 to 484. He spoke to a number of first year engineering classes who put him down as first and no one else. Singh (along with Lim who made it to round five) were surprisingly strong candidates.

Originally Posted by Alvand

Hey Vishal,

Here's a piece of advice that will make your upcoming year as MSU President a success. Create a VP Communications position and hire Chad Fullerton to fill it. This guy knows what he is doing and will give the MSU the transparency to students it desires.

Communication is key.

Thanks Alvand.

The true message is that in order to have a new MSU, there needs to be constructive input, student involvement and transparency. Not more blog sites or hate mail, just more positivity.

I agree almost completely. However the small thing I disagree with is complete positivity. If we were truly positive about everything then we would be complacent. A large part of progress, and a goal of any body that aims for improvement is to take the negatives and turn them into the positives. And as unfortunate as it may seem, people like Andrew (steps2health) who blindly criticize contribute nothing, but what they do is uncover some of the negatives that most refuse to look at. Joey Coleman, even though his articles are unpopular amoung a large group of people, he brings to our attention the negatives and what should be the positives.

The point is that some things are really not helpful at all, but somethings are, the question is are we willing to accept that instead of arguing?

they could lobby for change within the school and be a visible face on campus instead of hiding behind a screen name or blog site

Here is my issue again here. There are hundreds of ideas that pass us by day in and day out, some good, some bad, nonetheless ideas. To lobby for change in the school as an individual is remarkable challenging, that is why unity in a union is so important. However, for some (perhaps not those who insult the MSU which in many ways is destructive), anonymity is the only, safe way to express ideas.

Originally Posted by Matt Wright

If people continue to voice their opinions, change would be possible within student government. The problem is that certain individuals who think that because they have an egotistical blog on a website it makes them the all-knowing power of McMaster. If the election process is merely a popularity contest, is that why certain people are intimidated away from candidacy themselves?

When people speak out against campaign platforms it just reaffirms that no one wants to step up and change, and then when worthy candidates aim for change they get put down and insulted. A sense of community is necessary. If people have such a problem with the way things are at McMaster, either find another school or put yourselves in the limelight and put forth worthy solutions.

Are you referring to Joey Coleman? You might as well come out and say his name if you are.