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Minutes 14 November 2014

USF-UFF Chapter Meeting


Time & Place. The Chapter Meeting was held at 12 noon at CDB Restaurant in Temple Terrace.


Attendance. Eleven members, including ten members of the Chapter Council, and one guest.


Minutes. Minutes of the October 31 meeting approved.


President’s Report.

  • Bargaining. Congratulations to Bob Welker on the contract.
  • Next semester. Discussion of the election and of meeting administrators.


Reports.

  • Membership. Membership committee will run a campaign next spring.
    • Motion made and seconded that the Chapter conduct travel grant campaign of the same terms and conditions as the past during the next semester. Motion approved.
  • Treasury. We are solvent.
  • Communications. Biweekly is currently focusing on the new tenure and promotion guidelines, but may focus on the legislative session next semester.
  • Tenure and Promotion Workshops. The Chapter will conduct a second Tenure and Promotion workshop in January.


Constitutional amendment.
The following proposal was presented to the Chapter:

Mechanics of the Referendum


The amendment accepted by the Chapter on October 3 and sent to the UFF membership in a Biweekly Special on October 14 shall be voted on by the members of the USF Chapter of the United Faculty of Florida. As resolved at the October 3 Chapter meeting, the referendum shall be electronic, as follows.


The Chapter has an account at VotingPlace.net, and shall compose a ballot with the following question:


Shall the proposed amendment to the UFF USF Constitution, regarding filling vacancies in the Executive Committee, Chapter Council, and FEA Delegation, be approved?

The possible responses will be Yes and No.


The Chapter shall take the following steps:

  • The Chapter shall snail-mail letters to UFF members at their home addresses with the following information:
    • A code consisting of two 3-character strings of letters and numerals. This shall be the sole information a voter shall provide the VotingPlace.
    • The URL http://votingplace.net/uffusf, which is where voters shall go to vote. (Note: at the moment, all that’s there is a stub.)
  • The Chapter shall broadcast a UFF Biweekly Special to UFF members announcing the referendum, and containing the text of the amendment.
  • The VotingPlace ballot page shall be opened when the letters are sent, and shall remain open for two weeks. Thereupon the results will be downloaded and announced.
    Per the UFF USF Constitution, the amendment will be approved if at least two-thirds of the votes cast are in favor of the amendment.


    Some specifics:

    • The mailing list shall be the list provided by the Tallahassee office in the latest reconciliation cycle, plus whatever members are recorded as having joined UFF prior to the mailing list being sent to the printer.
    • The Secretary generated the codes using a quasi-random number generator.
      • There are approximately two billion possible codes, of which just over 500 will be assigned to voters; the probability of someone randomly choosing a working code is approximately 1 in four million.
      • The codes were filtered so that no working code may be accidentally entered by someone with a different code unless that someone makes at least three typos in entering their own code.
    • The only information VotingPlace shall have of voters is their codes. The Secretary shall have a master list of each UFF member and their codes, so if some member misplaces or does not receive their letter, that member can get their code from the secretary. There is no reason for these codes to be used for any purpose in the future, as generating such a new list of such codes is straightforward.
    • The report by the VotingPlace provides both digests and copies of individual ballots, but without codes, so voters’ anonymity is protected from the user (the Secretary).
      The results of the referendum shall be reported to the UFF USF membership.
  • Motion made and seconded to approve the Mechanics passed.


    These minutes respectfully submitted by G. McColm on 24 November 2014.

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