Articles

The Zone 1 Echo Coordinator Election
Will there ever be another?
Douglas Myers 1:270/720

The Zone 1 Echo Coordinator (abbreviated here as Z1EC or ZEC) is an obscure position, not often doing anything noticable to the average sysop. If you've never heard of the office, don't be embarrassed - the chances are that you're in good company. In fact, Zone 1 has spent much of the recent years without anyone doing this job at all.

Why, then, is this office the most hotly contested in Fidonet? Why does this position dominate the interest of Fido's political activists? Why is this office so prominant (or notorious, of late)?

The ZEC is basically an assistant to the Zone Coordinator, much the same as a Regional Echo Coordinator (REC) assists a Regional Coordinator (RC) and a Net Echo Coordinator (NEC) assists a Net Coordinator (NC). As the title implies, the specific duties of the ZEC are related to Fido's echomail. The ZEC is charged with acting as a Chairperson for the Regional Echo Coordinator's Council (RECC) and acting as a liason of sorts between the distribution services (Backbone, Fidospine, and others), the echo moderators, and the Echolist Keeper. The job description goes into more detail than I've summarized above, but the summary should serve to illustrate that the duties themselves would not inspire the passionate and long-lasting debate current with the Fido Politicos.

What has fanned the coals of this interest into a raging fire is Bob Satti's decision, as Zone Coordinator, to transform the position of ZEC from an appointed position to an elected position. The last ZEC, Bob Kohl, became the first functionary in Fidonet to be elected in a zone-wide sysop-level election.

But this may be the last time sysops at large in Zone 1 may ever have a direct vote in any election. Both the proponents and opponents of such elections agree that the last one was disappointing:

1. Only about 6% of Fido sysops cast a ballot in the election. This has been blamed on multiple causes, ranging from sysop apathy to insufficient publicity for the election.
2. The election itself was vocal and time-consuming, with confusion over the preferential voting system used... and the results were considered tainted by some over allegations of multiple votes by at least one individual.
3. The elected candidate did not complete his term. Instead, he removed from office by the RECC acting in conjunction with the ZC. Charges are too numerous to mention here, but left some with a distrust of further direct elections.

As it currently stands, the future of direct sysop voting is being considered by the RECC and the ZC. An interim ZEC, Gary Gilmore, was previously appointed to conduct an election in the event that the ZEC could not complete his term. He has assumed the interim position, but was instructed to hold off on the election until the RECC and ZC decide on the most appropriate way to fill the office. Zone 1 awaits this decision.

What can you, as a sysop, do? If you have strong feelings on how the next ZEC should be selected, tell your REC. If you want more information or just want to watch events unfold, moniter the ZEC and the Z1C echos. You may also want to moniter the Z1_ELECTION echo. Some discussion is going on there now and it's a likely choice for voting if there is to be another sysop-level election. I get a surprising amount of "unapproved" information from what may not be an obvious place - the SUPER-BITCH echo. And Z1_POLITICAL is another place to keep an eye on - It's not too active now, but a likely site for those "unmoderated" discussion if things heat.

Finally, you could mention to your friends that there's a bit of background material right here in FIDONEWS. A copy should be available from anyone's NC, and I'll attempt to summarize upcoming news in future issues.

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| Fidonet: Douglas Myers 1:270/720@fidonet.org
| Internet: doug@mdtnbbs.com
| Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly his own.
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