You’re involved in enough organizations to know the scenario:
At the October meeting, the faceless “Nominating Committee” produces a slate of officers for the next year.
At the November meeting, the president reads the slate again and calls for a vote.
At the December meeting, the new officers are installed.
I’m involved in about a dozen organizations ranging from real estate associations to churches to golf associations to Chamber of Commerce councils to lawyer associations to medical charities to community college committees. (Wow! Perhaps a cutback is in order?)
The scenario above plays out almost identically the same with all. Maybe the months change, but the process doesn’t.
So, I walk into the Sales and Marketing Council’s October meeting and what do I see? (No, not a band of angels comin’ after me, though there are plenty of angels to be seen in the room.)
A ballot. The one reproduced here. A real ballot as a precursor to a real election. Yes, there was some sort of Nominating Committee to winnow down the field, but they obviously came up with three names without any inside politickin’.
And, as it played out, it indeed was a real election. No rigged deal here.
The election was for more than just the right (!) to handle a lot of paperwork for the SMC. It would put the winner on the ladder to the top, a ladder that has no broken rungs along the way. You make secretary-treasurer, soon you make president.
Members got a ballot as they arrived. They voted, the votes were counted and President Jim DelVecchio announced the winner, Pud English.
Why can’t more organizations do that? Surely, getting to the final ballot is honor enough and losing wouldn’t deflate anyone’s ego to the point of embarrassment.
I know Deborah Metzig very well (when you select what goes into a newspaper, its advertising executive makes sure you know her very well) and I know Maxine McBride reasonably well (again, when you select what goes into a newspaper, a good public relations executive makes sure you know her very well) and I will tell you this: both were honored, neither showed embarrassment in losing to a person they admire and both will continue to be strong SMC workers.
Wouldn’t it be great if more organizations did it the American way than ... well ... didn’t the old Russkies have the single-shot ballots? (Or maybe the new ones, too — did Putin have opposition?) Wouldn’t it make the rank-and-file feel like they had some voice, rather than the suspicion that the big decisions were made by the good old boys (and, in residential real estate, the good old girls?)
Congrats to Pud and Maxine and Deb And, most of all, to SMC.
— Fred Seely is the editorial director of Bailey Publishing & Communications, Inc. and editor of this newspaper. He can be
reached [email protected].