How should the Psephological Society be run?

[Deleted]

So, we have chosen a name. Where do we go from here? I'll throw in my tuppence worth;

- As James Doyle conceived this idea, he should be the Honorary President. We need to discuss James' proposed Mission Statement and logos.

- We need to discuss what officers and roles would be required, such as Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Regional/National officers, council liaisons, Boundary Commissioner liaisons etc.

- We should elect our first Chairman from our own ranks using polls on this forum, with an exhaustive ballot system which requires 50%+ to be elected. Someone could put their name forward, and would need a proposer and seconder in order to be nominated. They would ideally have an excellent knowledge of wards and boundaries throughout the country, how elections are conducted and have a clear vision of the way all councils should report election results - and most importantly, act as our chief representative. I would suggest they are elected for four year terms.

- We could do with a website setting up, something like psephologicalsociety.co.uk

- Membership could be free for the first 50 members (eg. us)

Any thoughts?

[Deleted]

I nominate Pete Whitehead for Chairman provided he is happy to be nominated.

[peterl]

I don't think we should use forum polls for elections. There is a risk of people multi-accounting and voting several times. More secure to post the name of who you are voting for, or if a secret ballot is desired then send a private message to a designated returning officer.

Before we actually get to nominating anyone, I think we should agree the positions suggested, create a summary of the responsibilities of each job so people know what they are getting themselves in for, and create some rules of procedure (e.g. nominations need a proposer and seconder, who can vote in each sort of election, if any positions are appointed e.g. council reps etc). A mini constitution if you will.

[J.G.Harston]

May 30, 2014 16:59:34 GMT swanarcadian said:

- We could do with a website setting up, something like psephologicalsociety.co.uk

Should be .org.uk

[Crimson King]

free decide what posts you want before you decide who to p[ut in them and perhaps decide what you want to do and how, before deciding what posts you need to do it.

Anarchist collective for me btw

[Deleted]

And even if its just to post links to news releases, etc, we need a Twitter account. Social media presence is important, I'm sure that we don't have to use it for chatting etc.

[Deleted]

/psephsoc is available (got to think of those 140 characters)

[swindonlad]

Don't mean to be picky, but shouldn't we need to see who wants to be a member before we go any further?

[J.G.Harston]

May 30, 2014 18:03:21 GMT swindonlad said:

Don't mean to be picky, but shouldn't we need to see who wants to be a member before we go any further?

(puts up hand)

[Tangent]

I would start off by assuming a de facto membership of all registered users of this forum. We would elect a general-purpose committee of five or six posters, in order to i) decide exactly what the association should do; ii) work out an internal constitution, including voting arrangements; iii) develop coherent Articles of Association that embody these views; iv) set up a discrete database of members of the Association. (Once this last task has been completed, members of this forum who are members would be allowed access to a sub-forum on matters of management and organisation only - other discussions instigated by the association, I hope, would still be open to all.)

Once those who have actively decided to become members approve the set-up under these new tasks, the g-p committee would then give way to the formally constituted association, and we would take it from there.

[Deleted]

Sounds good to me Tangent.

[swindonlad]

Happy to help with the setting up

[peterl]

Sounds like a sensible way forward. I would also be interested in helping to set up. I have some specialist knowledge in corporate governance and legal issues and could help to write up constitutional documents and such in precise terms once the contents have been agreed.

Do we start inviting the likes of Peter Kellner and Prof. king?

Probably a little premature at this stage.

[Harry Hayfield]

May 30, 2014 16:59:34 GMT swanarcadian said:

Membership could be free for the first 50 members (eg. us)

Who is "us"?

[Pete Whitehead]

May 30, 2014 17:22:34 GMT joe said:

I nominate Pete Whitehead for Chairman provided he is happy to be nominated.

I'm happy to be nominated in the sense that I take it as a great compliment, but I'm not sure I'd be happy to take on the role due to other commitments. I would suggest James Doyle, who has had the idea and put a lot of thought into how the organisation should operate, should be chairman. I would also propose that a prominent role be found for Kevin Larkin should he have the time and inclination.

[Tangent]

One valuable project we could pursue, as a society, would be the creation of a comprehensive electoral database, covering not just national and regional elections, but all municipal authorities since 1900. (In a perfect world, we would be able to go back as far as the Municipal Corporations Act, but such ambition would probably outrun the records and our resources.) There would also be maps of historic wards, whose outlines could be superimposed on contemporary maps.

An associated project might be a model database for recording and publishing the results from contemporary elections, including statistics such as polling district turnout, which could be licensed to local authorities for their use. That would depend on having people with the relevant IT experience.

One big obstacle this would throw up is that so many members here have devoted their own time to building their own personal records. Their data, experience and time would be invaluable; but I strongly feel they should not be compelled to add this to the common stock unless they wish, and that any potential claims over intellectual property should be fairly dealt with beforehand. All that, assuming goodwill, will probably mean legal obstacles and some expense.

[greenchristian]

Jun 4, 2014 17:07:07 GMT Tangent said:

One valuable project we could pursue, as a society, would be the creation of a comprehensive electoral database, covering not just national and regional elections, but all municipal authorities since 1900. (In a perfect world, we would be able to go back as far as the Municipal Corporations Act, but such ambition would probably outrun the records and our resources.) There would also be maps of historic wards, whose outlines could be superimposed on contemporary maps.

An associated project might be a model database for recording and publishing the results from contemporary elections, including statistics such as polling district turnout, which could be licensed to local authorities for their use. That would depend on having people with the relevant IT experience.

One big obstacle this would throw up is that so many members here have devoted their own time to building their own personal records. Their data, experience and time would be invaluable; but I strongly feel they should not be compelled to add this to the common stock unless they wish, and that any potential claims over intellectual property should be fairly dealt with beforehand. All that, assuming goodwill, will probably mean legal obstacles and some expense.

I did start work on a web-based idea of this nature last summer, but real life got a bit too crazy to get it to a beta-test stage during the autumn. I will try to revive my efforts over the coming summer.

[kevinlarkin]

Jun 4, 2014 17:07:07 GMT Tangent said:

One valuable project we could pursue, as a society, would be the creation of a comprehensive electoral database, covering not just national and regional elections, but all municipal authorities since 1900. (In a perfect world, we would be able to go back as far as the Municipal Corporations Act, but such ambition would probably outrun the records and our resources.) There would also be maps of historic wards, whose outlines could be superimposed on contemporary maps.

It is worth noting that a database containing the bulk of this information already exists discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/?sn=5319&type=Data%20catalogue, although it is currently only available for the purposes of academic research. Rather than try and replicate this it might be more worthwhile requesting the owners to release it as 'open' data.

As far as mapping is concerned, the Ordnance Survey licensing restrictions on historic boundaries should be borne in mind.

[Andrew_S]

Jun 4, 2014 17:07:07 GMT Tangent said:

One valuable project we could pursue, as a society, would be the creation of a comprehensive electoral database, covering not just national and regional elections, but all municipal authorities since 1900. (In a perfect world, we would be able to go back as far as the Municipal Corporations Act, but such ambition would probably outrun the records and our resources.) There would also be maps of historic wards, whose outlines could be superimposed on contemporary maps.

An associated project might be a model database for recording and publishing the results from contemporary elections, including statistics such as polling district turnout, which could be licensed to local authorities for their use. That would depend on having people with the relevant IT experience.

One big obstacle this would throw up is that so many members here have devoted their own time to building their own personal records. Their data, experience and time would be invaluable; but I strongly feel they should not be compelled to add this to the common stock unless they wish, and that any potential claims over intellectual property should be fairly dealt with beforehand. All that, assuming goodwill, will probably mean legal obstacles and some expense.

I put together a spreadsheet with the 2010 election results which I hope is useful:

docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At91c3wX1Wu5dHdWdzBpbEl6S29TUmVid3dPR1k4RXc&usp=sheets_web

[Deleted]

Jun 10, 2014 23:56:22 GMT pl said:

Does anyone have a complete list of the local authority declaration times for 2014?

This is one thing we could lobby for from each council, if we can get this Society up and running: the time the overall result being confirmed on their website - unless we already know it in advance for those that elect by thirds - and the time of the final ward declaration made for each council.

And, if we can agree on the criteria, league tables to be published for the best and worst councils in terms of the electoral information they provide. A chance to encourage quality as well as name and shame (Tower Hamlets).