NomCom Part 4

This should be my final post about the NomCom and it’s current process. I just want to leave you with a few more tidbits. It might be interesting for me to blog about improvements but I believe that the NomCom has requested that an ERC (Election Review Committee) be put together to review and possibility implement our suggestions.

NomCom

The NomCom has 2 responsibilities. The first one is to verify/determine if an applicant is qualified. That process is done as soon as the applications are reviewed. The second responsibility is to rank the applicants and provide the slate to the BoD to be ratified.

Rankings

I want to state for the record when you get a few data people on a committee all hell breaks loose, we need decimal points and we need to “balance” our numbers using an alternate method. I am 100% confident that given all the vague information, ranking sheets and etc. this committee without a doubt did a fair ranking of applicants based on their application and interview. And remember we have to be audit ready.

We turned in our sheets after the last interview and did a combination/ranking. Then we discussed weights and impact on rankings. And then we did something totally crazy. We got on a webex and shared and .xls to create a ranking based on putting everyone in order 1-x, created an average across them and then pulled out this fancy function that a few of us were unaware of RANK( ). How cool is that? We checked our new rank against the previous one and sure enough we were dead on! But it never ends there. We discussed a few of the orders because some of us are passionate about this and feel that maybe we need to reconsider or discuss further. You know get a consensus. We are good people, I don’t think anyone is unhappy and I believe we are all confident in our process and final ranking.

Undefined

There are many things about all of this that are undefined. In my opinion that can either hurt or help. For starters no where does it say that applicants have to keep quiet about applying for the BoD. The ruling for this year was that PASS, the BoD, the NomCom and anyone associated with the process or organization are not allowed to make statements or speak publicly about the applications. This means you can run out and tell the world and basically start your campaign, but it is however at your own risk. You might not actually be qualified and removed from the slate. You might decide that you are not ready for one reason or another and remove yourself from the slate.

Also not defined is when someone can start the campaigning once they have been notified of their rank. We tried to stick to the above, we can’t stop you policy.  However it was not written very clearly.

Schedule

The schedule is quite a tricky thing, several items have to be taken into consideration.

• Religious holidays
• Limiting the amount of email sent to members
  • Advertising for Summit is predetermined
    • The bulk of Summit registration happens during this time and since it is where PASS makes it’s money for the year it takes priority.
• Housekeeping
  • Time to qualify applicants based on application
  • Time to notify applicants
    • Allowing time for them to withdrawal
  • Time to hold interviews and rate applicants
  • Time to prepare final ranking
  • Allowing time for ranking and ballot to be presented to the board and agreed upon
    • Extra time has to be built in due to the board having the power to send the ballot back
• Campaign events
• Short voting period
  • Most votes are cast on the first and last day of the voting period.
  • Reduce email reminders.
• Summit, they want winners announced by then.

What you know can hurt you.

This is where I elaborate on some things that are true this year and other things that I can see happening in the future based on the current process. You however don’t get to know which is which and that my dear is mostly to protect the innocent.

I know people, that hurts. I know how hard some people work to do good for the community, I know and feel their dedication and passion but how much of that can come into play? I know and talk to others who have had dealings with some applicants that are not favorable in my opinion, what do you do with that information? But worst of all is that this process is only looking to remove unqualified candidates anything beyond that and our hands are tied until the minimum quota on applicants is met. The ERC documentation says that if there are 3 open seats you need 9 applicants. If there were 12 we’d have the ability to drop the bottom 3 if there are 9 we have to leave them on. Oh don’t get me wrong there is a special “if the NomCom unanimously votes someone can be excluded” option. But forcing a minimum number of applicants leaves you with a potential issue. Doesn’t have any rules about what to do if there are 2 seats and only 1 applicant.

Other things that might cause you  hurt is knowing that you have allowed someone to get on a ballot and practically set them up for failure. They don’t have the reach or experience of the top candidates. Votes may be low for some because of this. Who’s going to vote for someone they don’t know or never heard of?   Some might not even be “ready” for such a demanding position, both mentally and physically due to the time commitment. Someone might even come to the table without a full understanding of the current state of PASS.

Does this make them bad candidates? Not really, it might just mean they have a longer on-boarding process (which by the way doesn’t exist, more of a trial by fire). Does this mean they won’t be effective against the seasoned vets? Oh quiet possibly,  but how does one judge these things. Does this mean they will fail? Maybe, no one knows that for sure. The real question is that if it is allowable to let someone so green get elected why isn’t there something that ensures their success? Should they be on the ballot? According to the guidelines, yes. Remember this is a JOB that you don’t get paid for and sometimes you just end up over your head.

This is my opinion, I am just documenting how the process went for this year. I want to be able to refer to it should I run for the NomCom next year. I also want to educate folks to a process that seems so “behind closed doors” because it really isn’t.

Wrap Up

Over all this is a fairly easy process and it didn’t require that much time. The interviews took a bit but it wasn’t that bad. I really enjoyed working with the rest of the committee. They all had so much to share. This was also great for gaining insight and knowledge about PASS and some of those that work for corporate. Again, please don’t forget that this is my opinion and not that of PASS, the BoD, any of the applicants or anyone else associated with elections.