Dear CUPE 3906 members,
As you might have heard, your Union is having a Special General Membership Meeting (or SGMM) on Wednesday, September 25th at 1 pm. The meeting will be held via zoom. You can register at the following link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZckcuusqTstH9zFUIZ8_6qUHKw4VyvemExn
The reason for this SGMM is to facilitate a number of elections for our executive committee and various other committees. Elections are the only business that will occur at this meeting. The meeting will consist of a nomination period followed by a Question-and-Answer session. The vote itself will occur online beginning at the conclusions of the meeting. You must attend the meeting in order to vote.
You can nominate yourself in advance of the meeting if you wish by emailing staff@cupe3906.org or you can nominate yourself/be nominated by someone else at the meeting.
The agenda for this SGMM can be found here: SGMM Agenda September 25 2024 elections meeting
The following positions will be elected at the September 25th SGMM:
Executive Committee: President, Vice President, Vice President External, Secretary Treasurer, Recording Secretary, Unit 4 (Residence Life) Lead Steward, and Undergraduate Officer
Other: Grievance Committee Member, 2 x Bylaws Committee Members, Unit 2 (Sessional Faculty) Bargaining Team Alternate, and 2 x HDLC delegates
You can by nominate for and run for any number of executive committee positions but can only hold one. The positions will be nominated and appear on the ballot in the order listed above.
If you have any questions, please contact staff@cupe3906.org
Question Period:
– will occur on September 25th at the Special GMM (held remotely via zoom)
– nominations can occur at any point up to (and including) the September 25th SGMM
– a standard call for nominations will occur at the September 25th SGMM.
– for each candidate who accepts nomination (and for each position), each candidate will have a standard two-minute opening remark
– nominations that are submitted in advance can provide a written statement, but would not be able to answer questions if not present
– the meeting chair will then call for questions, making clear there will be a maximum of 4 questions total from 4 different people (no follow-ups) for each candidate
– each candidate will 2 minutes per question to answer
– each candidate has the right to refuse to answer any question
– questions must be relevant to the statement given and/or the candidates qualifications to do the job (which will ultimately result in some political discussion, we must allow this, it is relevant to most positions)
– hard cut off if the time limit is reached, announced by the decided time keeper
– after all candidates have their question period, we would proceed to the vote
The Vote:
– only members who attend the SGMM will be able to vote (verified by zoom login information)
– ballot will be sent to the McMaster email used to register for SGMM following election (via election runner)
– single ballot will have all positions being contested
– ballot will be a ranked ballot (ie. if there are 3 candidates contesting an election, you rank 1st, 2nd, and 3rd preference instead of marking first choice with a single ‘x’ as usual)
– ballot available for 72 hours following conclusion of SGMM
– to be declared a winner, candidate will need majority of votes (as per bylaws)
– if a position does not produce a majority winner, lowest vote getter will be dropped and subsequent runoff held (same rules as above)
– if there is still a tie (no majority), a separate run off election will occur
– if elected into one executive committee position, that same person cannot be elected to another executive committee position (ie/ someone who is elected president will not be awarded VP external, regardless of the number of votes they receive) and automatic run off will occur if someone wins a second position (same rules as above) **for clarity, someone can win executive position and be elected as committee member or delegate to any body other than the executive**