So, last Thursday there was a by-election to fill a vacancy on the SRA for Soc Sci...

Since I took the time to become informed and to go out and vote, I would like to know the results, but there has been no mention of it on the elections website and not much talk about it in general...

Does anyone know who won?

Originally Posted by c.erl

So, last Thursday there was a by-election to fill a vacancy on the SRA for Soc Sci...

Since I took the time to become informed and to go out and vote, I would like to know the results, but there has been no mention of it on the elections website and not much talk about it in general...

Does anyone know who won?

Yeah, Amanda Stevens won. By how much I don't know, I've since quit the elections committee for greener pastures. I'll see if any of the RO's are in tomorrow when I'm in the office to see if this problem can be fixed...

Yay for information! Thanks for letting me know!

Originally Posted by c.erl

Yay for information! Thanks for letting me know!

Thank you for asking!

If I recall correctly the count was 56% for Stevens. Worst case scenario my numbers are off and its somewhere between 52% and 58%

Why wouldn't you ask me Andrew, huh huh huh?

danielle = macinsiders princess & queen of the elections committee

apparently i'm just royalty all around.

Info on the By-Election, upcoming referendum and SRA Generals: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/g...4 2321&ref=mf

Originally Posted by lorend

Info on the By-Election, upcoming referendum and SRA Generals: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/g...4 2321&ref=mf

Why Facebook and *not* the MSU website? Once again, not everyone has Facebook and it should not be relied upon as a source of information. I, for one, cannot access that information.

The referendum is on the MSU website buried under the elections page, but there's no mention of it on the main page. This post is actually the first I've heard of it. There's mention of the General SRA elections on the main page - but no mention of any By-election which may or may not have occurred - or the results of it - anywhere.

And for the referendum... all it is is telling me that there is one and it's for a Women's Centre. Where can I find more information about said centre so I can make an informed decision?

Enough is enough... either use the website effectively or scrap it all together. There's too much inconsistency to rely on it for information.

/end rant.

Hi David,

Your complaints are quite valid and the best way to make sure that they are taken care of to your satisfaction is to email either Azim or the CRO about the problem, they're both wonderful people and I'm sure they'd love the feedback.

- Andrew

At the same time I feel as if I can anticipate their answers and I'm sure Danielle can also respond since she is now a member of the elections committee.

The EC just wrapped up presidentials and two by-elections (well, one was acclaimed but still). The process for SRA generals/referendum has only JUST started. Although I agree with you in the sense that the website should strive to be the official source, I also recognize the circumstance and the work that the EC currently has done.

As for the referendum, it was mentioned at the General Assembly that the problem with the referendum is that there is only so much information that has been received in regards to what question students actually want asked. This referendum is the result of another petition from students.

There was a lot of past discussion about the women's centre back in the summer and you can check out that thread. These threads were prompted after a founding committee had made a presentation to the SRA last summer. However, it is a different group of students who made the petition for the current referendum.

Originally Posted by DavidR

Why Facebook and *not* the MSU website? Once again, not everyone has Facebook and it should not be relied upon as a source of information. I, for one, cannot access that information.

The referendum is on the MSU website buried under the elections page, but there's no mention of it on the main page. This post is actually the first I've heard of it. There's mention of the General SRA elections on the main page - but no mention of any By-election which may or may not have occurred - or the results of it - anywhere.

And for the referendum... all it is is telling me that there is one and it's for a Women's Centre. Where can I find more information about said centre so I can make an informed decision?

Enough is enough... either use the website effectively or scrap it all together. There's too much inconsistency to rely on it for information.

/end rant.

Yes, admittedly the information about the by-election should have gone up on the website. Unfortunately the CRO is not working this week, and I don't believe the DRO is either, so the information cannot be posted anytime before Monday.

Same thing goes with information about the referendum, too. The CRO & DRO aren't going to be here this week, so information won't be supplied until after they get back. Quite simply, it's Reading Week, so no PTM's have to work.

Something I'd like to point out that most people at Mac seem to not recognize (and this is especially true when things don't get done in a way they like) is the fact that Part-Time Managers are only supposed to work part time.

When I left work at 12:45pm on Friday February 6th, the Elections Committee (and thereby the CRO/DRO) had been dealing with fines and counting votes for more than twelve hours. PTMs are generally only supposed to work ten hours a week. With all of the extra work that had to happen during the campaign period, I am quite positive that they would have worked around 100 hours.

Due to this large spike in hours, they would have also had to slack in their school work, social lives etc in order to keep this election as well organized as they did. Working that much takes a lot out of you. I worked at few 25 hour weeks this year and was pretty much dead at the end of them.

If I was in that position (and maybe it's good that I'm not) the results of a by-election wouldn't be the first thing I would do the next day when I came in. Especially if it was the day before Reading Week, when a lot of the student population has already taken off.

Furthermore, as Temara mentioned, the SRA General Elections won't be taking place for quite some time yet; I believe March 4th is the date that applications are due. And again, there will be more information about the referrendum coming after Reading Week.

And about the website: as a PTM I hate it. Orbis (the server company thinger) has not provided a manual to the MSU. If they did, it would be a hell of a lot easier to update the site. I have used both this update thinger and the old one, and I must admit I prefer the old one more.

A lot of the PTMs end up asking the Webmaster or Network Admin to update for them (in the past at least, because it's such a pain in the butt. It's not their job to update for us, but sometimes it is easier for them to update rather than writing an extensive manual (I've written two this year for staff; they both were frustrating and tedious).

I've found that if you don't know html, it can be really hard to update the website so it looks somewhat half-decent. That's what personally really frustrates me.

Temera, again you're telling me to look on this website for information about the referendum. You mention it was brought up at the GA - unfortunately I had class, and according to our SRA who mentioned only about 35 people showed up - so did almost 20,000 other students. It's funny, people complain about the MSU - and the MSU people shoot back telling us to stop whining and do something about it. I think the very least we, as students, can do is vote on the different elections/referendums that come up. Unfortunately, without information on it available to us through the official mediums how can we be expected to do so? I'm trying to put my drop in the bucket by being an informed student - yet I have to look to Facebook (which I do not have) and MacInsiders (which although is great - is not official) to find more information. If the MSU wants students to get more involved, they have to start providing us with the tools to do so.

Danielle, I apologize if you feel I was attacking the Elections Committee. That was not my intention. From my experience and from what I've heard - the EC has done a great job this year (compared to last year, at least). It's more about the support system (or lack there of) you are provided with. The fact that they require people, with no web experience, to update a complicated system demonstrates to me that something is wrong. Why is it that there are so many broken links on the MSU website? (i.e. any SRA minutes before 2007-2008, any FYC archived minutes, etc.). Why is it that pages are sparsely updated and have inconsistent styles and quality of information. Because there is no support system in place to facilitate proper maintenance of the website. No, I don't think you should be forced to work overtime. You should simply be able to have that information available and some person, or group of persons should be able to grab that information and make it available to students. Websites can be an excellent source of information, an excellent tool for communication and an incredible way of engaging students. Over my 5 years here, the MSU website has done none of that and always runs stale - leaving me little reason to check it on a regular basis.

As someone who maintains my society's website, and have done it for corporate clients in the past, I can tell you that the type of updates I'm talking about do not require 10 hours per week. Once a proper system is put in place (say, over the summer), the updates I speak of take minutes if the system is properly designed. Having the webmaster schedule 1 hour every evening to update the information collected from all the committees, groups, etc would be more than enough time. This would still leave 7 hours a week for extra (according to OP 2.2 - 14 hours per week, 35 in the summer) for additional maintenance and random things that may take longer to implement.

MSU people keep telling me that the MSU is a business. Well then, it's time to step up and operate it as such.

Originally Posted by DavidR

Temera, again you're telling me to look on this website for information about the referendum. You mention it was brought up at the GA - unfortunately I had class, and according to our SRA who mentioned only about 35 people showed up - so did almost 20,000 other students.

I had said was my understanding as to why it wasn't up on the msu website yet. Additionally, in order to give you some insight on when word should start getting more out there, I tried to explain what EC people have been up to. Danielle also kindly supplemented that story with what she knew.

Since you were interested, I relayed what I had heard to you and mentioned that it was brought up at the GA so that it gives you some feeling that there's somewhat official notification of it and I'm not just making this up. The GA was just one venue that the EC will use to advertise this referendum.

No one expects all students to know too much yet and Macinsiders is definitely not intended to be official. The beauty of "macinsiders" is that you've just received the answer to your question relatively quickly from one of said 'mac insiders' (and I hate that term because it's being blanketed over a lot of MSU volunteers and outcasting them). You ask a question and people share what they know.

Consider the timing of the upcoming referendum. The period to register for a campaign side is open until March 4th or 5th I believe. I was just on campus today and have seen posters up about that with information about the referendum too - hopefully it should be up on the website soon. Then, there is at least a week of campaigning where information about the referendum gets out there full force. Then, it isn't until sometime around March 12th when voting actually happens.

and the MSU people shoot back telling us to stop whining and do something about it.

I would have never accused anyone who's politely asking questions of whining. I'm not sure where this has come from. By all means, you should feel free communicate with the EC members directly as should any student. Andrew had provided us with their contact information. However, I also believe that they probably already have acknowledged these concerns that you have raised and are working on them as best they can with what they've got.

More 'insider' information: The EC is working hard in conjunction with a bunch of other students in order to investigate revamping the current structure.

*The EC is getting the information up and there will be plenty of time to get informed since this process only just started.*

As funny as this is going to sound, your representatives are "tools" of the MSU. We are always available to answer questions as best we can and I know we always do that whether it be on macinsiders, via email, office hours, or what have you. If the website isn't at it's best, there are always other venues for communication.

One more thing. You've apologized to Danielle as a member of the election committee but I would like to ask you to re-read my comment and consider one for me too. I'm quite taken aback by these continuous attacks on 'msu insiders' especially when 'we' are only doing what we can to share what we know. I am just as much of a student as you but I've chosen to put in the extra effort to be keen on what is going on in the students union. I'm really glad to see that people are also interested and asking questions.

I find it ridiculous that I have to look at MacInsiders for information on what's going on in the university.

To find out what's going on in engineering all I have to do is check out the MES website. It's super handy. Why is there nothing superhandy from the main body, hmmm? I think this is the main point of what DR is getting at.

And yes, when the presidents of groups such as the MES can't get information - clearly the rest of us aren't being worried about either.