January 2024 Board Election
The current board consists of Sarah Walden McGowan, Jordan Gibson, Ronny Rose, Sammie Talmadge, Steve Grabowski, Matt Kamm, and Adrian Tatro.
Matt’s term is up and Adrian is stepping down to prioritize other things. Thank you to both for your years supporting the RFR community through volunteering on the board!
Two board seats are open for election this season.
Given the current balance of men, women, and nonbinary people remaining on the board, the policies around board tenure and gender balance mean at least one of the two seats needs to go to a candidate who is not a man.
See this older post in summary of the policy, but in short, the aim is to avoid having more than 4 out of 7 seats on the board held by men, and candidates will be taken at their word in gender identification.
When
Candidates have through Monday, January 15th to acquire nominations.
We will then be holding the election during a two-week window.
How
We will be using an online tool that supports ranked-choice voting, opavote. If you are eligible to vote (based on attending at least two RFR events in the past two seasons of game), you will receive an email from noreply@opavote.com with the subject line “January 2024 RFR Board Election” and a friendly “vote” button in the message.
If you believe you should have received this email and don’t have it in your inbox or spam filter, please let me know (kep@redfeatherroleplaying.com) and I can work to send you an individual voting code by another means.
Depending on the pool of candidates, we may need to run two votes to ensure that at least one of the two seats goes to a candidate who is not a man - first a ranked-choice vote among candidates who are not men to fill one seat, followed by a ranked-choice vote among all candidates other than the one selected in the first election.
How To Participate In The Election
Board Election Participant Eligibility
You are eligible to run for the board and to vote in the election if you have participated in at least two (2) of the weekend-long RFR events this year (i.e. the prior two game seasons) either as a player or as a volunteer (NPC, staffer, other volunteer). That participation can be at any combination of the three RFR LARPs active in that time: Witchwood, Port Katherine, and Entanglement.
To vote:
- Please make sure you have an up to date email address in the Witchwood, Port Katherine, or Entanglement website site.
- If you are using two different email addresses or wish to specify a different one, feel free to email kep@redfeatherroleplaying.com to let me know what email address to use when including you in the voting system.
Candidates
Candidacy
If you’re running, email kep@redfeatherroleplaying.com to let me know you are running / accept the nominations others have sent or will send (so people can’t volunteer you without your agreement). Please let me know your gender identification for election purposes.
Nominations
Get 5 people in the voting population to nominate you by January 15th.
You can collect nominations by either:
a) having five eligible RFR voters sign a paper nomination form ( RFR_ElectionNominationForm - Google Docs ), then emailing a scan/photo of the completed form to [kep@redfeatherroleplaying.com]
b) having five eligible RFR voters email kep@redfeatherroleplaying.com saying “I nominate [candidate name] for the RFR board” and stating their name. People nominating via email should use email addresses corresponding to the ones they use in Port Katherine, Entanglement, or Witchwood systems.
Forum posts
It’s recommended that you post a self-introductory statement on the forums (https://forums.witchwoodroleplaying.com/ 2 and https://forums.portkatherine.com/ and Entanglement ).
Board Responsibilities
Red Feather Roleplaying is the parent organization that produces Witchwood and Port Katherine; it makes administrative decisions regarding budget, campsite rentals, insurance, policy, etc. As a board member of Red Feather Roleplaying you will be required to attend no fewer than two (2) board meetings per year. Meetings last approximately three hours and are attended remotely via video conference.
At these meetings it is your duty to civilly discuss the issues on the agenda and to vote in good conscience in what you believe to be the best interests of Red Feather Roleplaying. You may also submit items to be included in the agenda.
Originally, Board members were also primary investors in the corporation. All of the original investors have since been paid out, and we do not require any sort of monetary buy-in or investment from the newly-elected board member. It is our hope that whoever is elected to the vacant seat will be sufficiently invested in the well-being of the community as to make a financial stake unnecessary.
For additional information on board member responsibilities, please see Joy’s comment on the Summer 2022 election post.
Sincerely,
Kep, Ombudsperson for Red Feather Roleplaying