Comments about the 2019 Election Results
by Chantal Desjardins
Are we disappointed about the 2019 election results? Yes! Were they unexpected? No!
Already, when we received the email on May 3rd announcing the election was starting, and in which the terms of the vote were explained - had we read it through carefully - we would have all known that the only way to win was to vote in great numbers – and we did much better at that than in previous years, but it was not enough. I’ll explain why it is so difficult to place an independent member on the board 2 years out of 3, later in this message, and hope I can clarify this for those who don’t understand.
First of all though, I would like to thank everyone who voted for me – all 2627 of you who delivered 77,870 votes for me. I would also like to give special thanks to Linda West, one of our Facebook moderators, who took on the task of keeping the election and the message to “VOTE”, front and forward, every day during the election. She is a big reason for the increase in votes this year – 20% participation – which is a big difference from when CIOG came into being in 2016 – we only had 13% member participation that year as we started our journey towards “Transparency, Fairness, Control”.
Election message received by most members on May 3rd
There it is above, the main message of the email received May 3rd. Did we all read this carefully and think about the implications those rules and numbers reflect and the impact they have on the results? I have highlighted the “main” points. Please read it again – it really explains why EVERY VOTE is so important!
For those of you interested in such things, I have prepared a little chart (at the bottom of this message) that shows what the impact of our votes could have been had we had the same voting power as Diamond.
We would have swept away their candidates!
And that is why the bylaws are what they are – they want to retain control! However, I can confidently say, that with each percentage increase in member votes and with each new member we welcome into our CIOG family, we are getting the word out that, YES!, members care about the governance of our clubs. And YES!, we need to band together to send a very important message to Diamond – that we want to be involved (and not just be on the fringes, through their use of "focus" groups and surveys about topics THEY select) in discussions about the future of our clubs and the improvements that we, the members (not just the developer), want for our clubs.
Lastly, we want an Annual General Meeting (AGM). Our club has never had one since it’s inception in 1994. At 20% quorum for this election (15% is required to conduct an “official” Embarc meeting with resolutions discussed and voting) we are showing them that it is NOT a waste of time and money.
I would ask that our CIOG members who are not yet members of Emwest Owners Association, our non-profit organisation to advocate for a greater say in board/club decisions, please consider joining this organisation for which I hold the role of VP Membership. The group operates transparently and follows all the requirements for non-profits and boards and a membership to contribute towards concretely advancing our objectives is only $29 a year. Please learn more about the group and join at https://www.citheownersgroup.org/eoa
