Articles

Z1C Election moves to Regional Discussions
Douglas Myers, 1:270/720

As of Sunday, June 27th (yesterday), the Z1C election moved from it's zonewide public input phase to a regional discussion phase. At this point, at least in theory, sysops have had sufficient time to evaluate the candidates based on their discussions in Z1_ELECTION and now have one week to inform their Regional Coordinator of their choice. All Regional Coordinators, to the best of my knowledge, have pledged to vote for the candidate the sysops in their region selects rather than a personal choice. Most regions plan to gather input from Net Coordinators.

As a concerned sysop, this is the most critical phase of the election for you - this next week is your only chance to make your choice count. You should monitor your local net's sysop echo to see if your NC is gathering input - if not, netmail him or her with your choice. Monitor your region's sysop echo to see if your Regional Coordinator is gathering input there. If so, speak up... even if you've already spoken with your net.

It's imperative that you speak up this week, as next week, July 3rd, the election will move to the Regional Coordinator's private echo for voting. Though Ross Cassell will be reporting on this vote, it will be too late to influence it.

There's much more than the identity of the next Zone 1 Coordinator at stake here. This will be a test of sysop involvement in Zone 1 politics. Many feel that sysops throughout the zone just don't care about the coordinators who represent them. There is, in my opinion, the prospect that a poor turnout in this election will influence coordinators to conduct future sessions entirely behind closed doors, as has been done in the past.

This election has busted one myth already: the feeling that any sysop level input into the election process would drag the election into senseless and unproductive bickering. However, the public discussion period was mostly orderly, with sysops asking reasonable and poignant questions, and candidates very responsive. Follow through by sysops in the next week should lay to rest the myth of sysop apathy in Fidonet.