Although 61% of PRSA/Boston chapter members say they want the APR rule dropped, board member and Assembly delegate Mark McClennan told the Society e-group that the board “has not yet decided what we will do with our delegates.”

Directors “need to have a board meeting and discuss it first,” he said in a posting Sept. 26.

mcclennan
McClennan (image via PRSA/Boston)
Art Stevens of the Committee for a Democratic PRSA posted the same day that he was flabbergasted by the refusal of McClennan and the board to accept the wishes of the majority of its members.

“Why is not a popular answer to a question not always the solution’?" asked Stevens. He added: "Can you simply ignore what members say and want? You state that ‘this is exactly the reason why the Assembly has the power to change the bylaws and not the membership-at-large.’ What happened to democracy?"

Sharpe Cites Cost of Direct Voting


Cindy Sharpe of Tampa Bay said the issue of direct voting raised “serious problems” and that there could be “high costs” in implementing such a program.

“This is exactly the reason why the Assembly has the power to change the bylaws and not the membership-at-large,” she said.

Society leaders and staff have failed to do research on e-mail voting which has been around more than a dozen years.

BigPulse.com, for instance, which conducts secure e-votes for groups with 50 to more than a million members, provided an “instant quote” on its website of $4,130 for doing an e-vote for the PR Society’s 21,000 members.

Society candidates could campaign on issues like candidates do in regular elections, undergoing press questions. Candidate viewpoints could be posted on the Society website and members could post their views, thereby using 21st century technology.

Society elections currently are being conducted as though it were the 1950s.

Below is BigPulse’s description of its services:

High security online elections, online voting, online surveys. Robust online voting technology and service you can count on for 50 or a million plus voters.
Flexible, integrated, feature rich online voting
• Online voting software for elections, surveys, award voting
• Inventors of interactive Opinion Markets
• Web-based, fully hosted poll manager
• Managed or self-managed
• Online and hybrid votes.
Vote of confidence
Ten years continuous online vote harvesting
• Continuous inhouse development
• Stress tested by many hundreds of clients in many countries and industries and thousands of highest security polls
• Outstanding testimonials
• Fantastic 24 hour support – based in USA, UK, Australia.
Great price
Fixed price, run as many polls as you want
• Subscribe for three, six or 12 months
• Instant fee calculator.
Online voting software – elections and awards
BigPulse is expert in delivering secure, smooth, reliable online elections and awards. The most feature rich voting software in the world. BigPulse often satisfies the most complex needs where others fail. Save time, money, effort, paper and trees. More on online elections and awards
The DOME of Conscience: lawmakers voting
Lawmakers in all countries are invited to vote in the lawmakers' DOME of Conscience. Connecting the parliaments and national assemblies to the people. See www.domevote.com