After a lengthy delay, the 2015-16 Commerce Society (ComSoc) executive was finally elected on Sunday.
Team AVC became the new executive with an 89 per cent vote of confidence from voters. Since the team’s three members — President-elect Ana Lopez, Vice President (Internal)-elect Vasanth Ranganathan and Vice President (External)-elect Caroline Hayes — are all on exchange, the celebration was slightly subdued.
“There was definitely no campaign celebration party in Kingston,” said Lopez, Comm ’16.
“We would have loved to do something like that — we want to do something when we’re back in Kingston with the volunteers.”
Instead, the three had to make do with a three-way Skype call for their celebration, and sent cards to their Kingston-based volunteers.
The celebration came after a period of delays, as technical issues led ballots to be released early in the morning last Thursday — six days after they were supposed to be issued.
Part of the issue stemmed from the ballots having to be sent out on a weekend, when it wasn’t logistically possible for Queen’s IT to distribute them, Lopez said.
“The ballot didn’t get out on time, especially because it was supposed to go out on a weekend where they weren’t working, so they didn’t get back to our Chief Policy and Returning Officer until the Monday,” she said.
“The ComSoc President and the AMS President had to intervene and eventually it got sent out on Thursday.”
She said the delay had an effect on the voter turnout. This year’s election saw only 22 per cent of the faculty vote, something Lopez said the incoming executive wants to improve upon for next year.
She added that the delay took away any momentum Team AVC’s campaign had created for increased voter turnout.
The six-day wait likely didn’t change the level of support Team AVC received. Lopez said the show of confidence was important to them.
“We really wanted to gain the trust and the confidence of the Commerce Society and kind of have that effect ripple on through to the next elections and the hiring period that comes afterwards,” she said.
“We really just want people to have confidence in us as a team and see the Commerce Society this coming year as something they want to be involved in.”
With the election and campaign finally over, Lopez said their focus will shift to getting things prepared for next year, including hiring the members of the ComSoc Advisory Board over the coming weeks.
“It will definitely be a challenge to have all these Skype interviews and Skype meetings, but the great thing is we all work really well together,” she said. “We’re really excited for March hiring.”
Tags
ComSoc, ComSoc elections, Elections
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