Candidate Q&A - 2014 Chair/President

[JeffT]

This thread is for questions and answers for the candidates for the 2014 Chair/President.

Please remember the following when participating in the Q&A threads. The normal forum code of conduct applies, except:

There is a partial exemption to the rule that forum discussion cannot be about a person. You may incorporate personal comments, including praise or criticism, into your election questions and answers, and ensuing discussion, but only regarding candidates who are running for a position, or about another person if it is directly entangled with an issue germane to the outcome of the election. In so doing, you must still exercise standard courtesy, and refrain from profanity, disruption of the discussion, excessive vitriol, and irrelevant comments. Please keep in mind that there will be an opportunity for spoken comments at the elections meeting.

[JeffT]

(As a point of procedure, I want to note that although I started this thread, because I subsequently accepted the nomination for Chair, I am no longer moderating it--currently, Assistant Secretary David is.)

This question was posted in the Nominations thread:

As a point of procedural clarification, should Jeff be elected as Chair, would he also retain his position as Secretary, or would we need to hold another election for that position?

I believe that Secretary is a Board-elected position, so other then nominations there would not need to be a member election if Jeff were to win Chair, and no longer be Secretary.

It is correct that Secretary is board elected. Although the bylaws governing this situation allow a person to hold two board positions, if I am elected Chair I will immediately resign from Secretary, as I believe it is best for each of the board positions to be held by separate people (other than brief transition periods or very exceptional circumstances). A vacancy in the Secretary position will be filled by a vote of the six of the nine board members who are member elected. They will solicit applications for the Secretary position but the vote will be by the board. The Assistant Secretary and I will be available to fulfill the role of the Secretary until the board formally fills the vacancy.

I also currently hold the position of Website Manager. Due to the importance of this position and the active attention required, I plan on continuing to hold this until a replacement can be found, but I will be much more aggressively recruiting to replace it. I do not know how long this will take to happen.

[Chryssaia]

Thank you for this.


I really don't know what I'd ask. I'm trying to think of something.

Here's the best I can think of right now XD

Give me an idea of what you might do differently as Chair and what you might do the same. This isn't a way to say what has been going wrong or anything like that, but everyone has their own ideas about what their vision is and I'm curious to hear them.

This is for all candidates if they accept, not just Jeff.

[JeffT]

Give me an idea of what you might do differently as Chair and what you might do the same. This isn't a way to say what has been going wrong or anything like that, but everyone has their own ideas about what their vision is and I'm curious to hear them.

I plan on holding regular one-on-one meetings with the directors to go over status, goals for the year, challenges, risks, and important initiatives. Through this, I plan to become knowledgeable about the major issues and concerns in each department.

I'll make regular reports to the board on the state of the con--including short term issues (convention planning status), medium term issues (policy, budgeting, and strategic decisions affecting all the departments) and long term issues (initiatives over the next 2 to 3 years).

I will ask the directors and managers to always keep focus on attendee experiences--the special moments that make attendees tell their friends about the con and make sure to return. I will ask the staff to focus on how their position was run the previous year and how they plan to improve it for the next year to provide the best attendee experiences.