Vote

[Megan Crowhurst]

Hi all,

We set the deadline for the vote we're doing now for Tuesday, but
only 17 people have voted.  Let's extend the vote until Thursday at
midnight (your time), to make sure everyone who'd like to vote, but
couldn't find the time or forgot, can do so.  In case you've deleted
the vote, I've copied it below.

--Megan

__________________
VOTE: STRUCTURE OF IGALA'S ADVISORY COUNCIL

Since we've had a number of proposals regarding the structure of the
advisory council, voting on it is a bit complicated.  We think that
the best way of doing this so that the many parts of different
proposals will be to go from general to more specific.  This means
this message is a bit complicated, with a number of different items
for you to provide an 'up' or 'down' (i.e. 'yes' or 'no') vote on.
The reason for using a "vote yes or no on each of the following" as
opposed to "vote for one of the following" is to give you the chance
of giving an opinion on every item.  This way, you will not have to
choose between two options, neither of which appeals to you, or
abstain from voting.  In that case, you may vote "no" on both.
Alternatively, if you could live with some subset of the options
presented, you may vote "yes" on all of the options that you would
support.  We'll tally all of the "yes" votes, and all of the "no"
votes, and will put together a package that consists of the options
favoured by the majority.  (If there are more noes than yesses, we'll
go back to the drawing board.)  Although possibly tedious for you,
this is the fairest way we can think of for getting the job done.

Please note that all of the options presented here are options
proposed in earlier discussion that are consistent with policies
we've already voted on (and I hope we've remembered everything we
need to).

Please send your completed ballots to me (Megan Crowhurst) at
mcrowhurst at mail.utexas.edu.  We'll count all responses received on or
before Thursday, February 17, 2000.

It might be useful to read through the ballot completely before
responding so that you understand how we're structuring the vote.  If
you have any questions about how to proceed with voting, please post
them to GALA-L.

ITEM 1:  GENERAL STRUCTURE OF IGALA'S ADVISORY COMMITTEE. BIPARTITE
VS. TRIPARTITE STRUCTURE.

Bearing in mind we've already voted to have specifically designated
seats: *Please vote "yes" for each proposed structure that you
support, and "no" for each proposed structure that you oppose.  (That
is, return a "yes" or "no" vote for each of (1), (2) and (3).)*

(1)	A BIPARTITE Advisory Council with:

	- A number of designated seats, to be filled by members representing
	  specific PROFESSIONAL/ACADEMIC concerns and APPOINTED by the
	  Executive Committee; and

	- A number of undesignated "at large" seats, to be filled by
members who
	  will be ELECTED based on a platform proposed by the candidate.

(2)	A BIPARTITE Advisory Council with:

	- A number of designated seats, to be filled by members representing
	  specific POLITICAL concerns and APPOINTED by the Executive
	  Committee; and

	- A number of undesignated "at large" seats, to be filled by
members who
	  will be ELECTED based on a platform proposed by the candidate.

(3)	A TRIPARTITE Advisory Council with:

	- A number of designated seats, to be filled by members representing
	  specific POLITICAL concerns and APPOINTED by the Executive
	  Committee; and

	- A number of designated seats, to be filled by members representing
	  specific PROFESSIONAL/ACADEMIC concerns and APPOINTED by
	  [still to be determined]; and

	- A number of undesignated "at large" seats, to be filled by
members who
	  will be ELECTED based on a platform proposed by the candidate.

(Note:  In this item, we are not voting on the specifics of how these
seats are to be filled, or how many seats there will be.)


ITEM 2:  NUMBER OF SEATS ON THE ADVISORY COUNCIL.

*Please vote "yes" or "no" on (4).*

(4)	12 seats (as originally proposed)
	(to be divided as equally as possible among the categories chosen in
	Item 1.)


ITEM 3:  CATEGORIES FOR WHICH ADVISORY COUNCIL SEATS MAY BE RESERVED.

*Given that we've already voted to designate some seats, please vote
"yes" for every category in (5) - (11) that you  support, and "no"
for every category that you oppose.*

(5)	A seat to represent STUDENT CONCERNS.

(6)	A seat to represent scholars not employed by universities (i.e. working
	in industry or elsewhere).

(7)	A seat to represent scholars with affiliations not in the US, the UK,
	Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

(8)	A seat to represent scholars working on queer (including gay, lesbian,
	bisexual, transgender) issues in linguistics.

(9)	A seat to represent scholars working on languages or language varieties
	whose speakers are socially or politically marginalized in the
	communities where they are spoken.

(10)	A seat to represent scholars focusing on men's language use.

(11)	A seat to represent scholars whose work directly reflects and addresses
	feminist issues/concerns.

NOTE: If we have forgotten categories that have been proposed, please
remind us in this space, and if we need to, we'll have another quick
vote next week.  To make this feasible, we'll only consider other
categories presented in response to this vote message, and returned
by the deadline (Tuesday, February 15).


ITEM 4:  LENGTH OF TERM FOR ADVISORY COUNCIL SEATS.

*Please vote "yes" or "no" on each of (12) and (13).*

(12)	A seat to represent STUDENT CONCERNS (if supported by the membership)
	will be for a term of TWO years.

(13)	With the exception of (12), Advisory Council seats will be for a term
	of THREE years.

____________

Return to:  mcrowhurst at mail.utexas.edu
Return by Thursday, February 17, 2000.

~~'~~'~~'~~'~~'~~'~~'~~'~~'~~'~~'~~'~~'~~'~~'~~'~~'~~'~~'~~'
Megan Crowhurst, PhD			Phone: 512-471-1701
Department of Linguistics		Fax:   512-471-4340
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX  78712-1196
USA