Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

Caffyns could be resurrected?

 

Revised postal vote forms for the Trustee election have now been sent out.
This has been Posted on Facebook. Trust members have a real choice this year.

 

My voting papers arrived this morning - so other members can expect the paperwork soon.

 

Mine have arrived also - yet to be opened and 'digested', lunch comes first !

 

Having now digested both lunch and paperwork...

I note that the Ballot Paper provides ONLY an option to vote FOR a candidate. To abstain on any candidate then you simply do not vote for them. Seems simple enough, but...I'm surprised that there is no AGAINST option. Maybe it was not thought necessary? IMHO an abstention suggests a degree of ambivalence as to whether or not a candidate is elected, whereas a specific AGAINST vote does at least give the opportunity to express a view (if so inclined) that you feel the candidate is not suitable.

I note also that the Board has again recommended the re-election of the three retirees, on the basis that having reviewed "the skills, knowledge, competences and experience" of the current Board they feel that those three "provide a balance of abilities that integrate with the experience of the other 6 Board members and will support the Trust's needs over the next three years". I would have found it informative to know why apparently the Board feels that the remaining candidate does not meet those criteria.

I do hope that the new candidate, were he not to be elected, will not feel sufficiently underwhelmed by the support for him from the Board that he decides to 'withdraw his labour' from his current activities.

 

This is the way that Local Council elections work. You vote for the candidate(s) you wish to be elected. You might take the view that not voting for someone is a vote against.

I would hope so too. I wondered whether a co-option of the unsuccessful candidate [whoever that might be] is possible under the rules.

I was also pleased to see that the Trust has taken steps to avoid this happening in the future.

 

The election is for 3 Trustees to fill 3 vacancies. After that the Board is full, so AFAIK there is no justification to co-opt any extras.

 

One question that I have - given my previously stated hope that All are working together behind the scenes........would 30717 happen to know if Mr Duffell will continue his excellent work on the TWAO and general work for the L & B if he is unsuccessful in getting elected?.....Again I hope that All will work together to continue the growth of the L & B Rlwy.

 

The sensible side of me understands perfectly well that all the administrative issues are absolutely vital to efficient operation and forward planning for the L&B ..... but confess I ain't 'arf looking forward to an update from those C&W magicians over at Pilton East.

In case any dog owners were wondering:
https://www.lynton-rail.co.uk/dogs-welcome
..... and I really love the promotional artwork!

 

According to his profile, 30717 is Mr Duffell

 

Could 30717 tell us what 'TD' stands for after his name? Living in Ireland I first assumed he must be a Teachta Dála, but I guess that's not the case! A search of other meanings of the abbreviation provided no enlightenment ...!

 

Territorial Decoration?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I was Puzzelled by this too. Having Irish heritage my first thought was the same as yours. None of the search engines revealed anything.

 

I would not expect an answer to this until after the election.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_Decoration

 

Mine arrived today too - good to see that the L&B are doing the right thing - and it'll be in the post tomorrow. Good luck to all, but especially to @30717 !

 

received all the gumph yesterday,the right guy voted for and all posted off,two things im not entirely happy with,the recommendation by the trustee's of the retiring 3,although perfectly above board it does hint of a closed shop and and that they dont recommend C.D and would have looked better by being left out and secondly that all voting papers are to be sent to Woody Bay instead of an independent company

 

In an earlier post I complained about not receiving ballot papers early enough here in Australia. I should make (have made) my request for earlier receipt of papers to the Company Secretary which I shall do, albeit belatedly. Others such as Meatman (above) have suggested external conduct of ballots and this should be addressed by, for instance, UK-Engage, who might also give some urgently needed advice, see: https://www.uk-engage.org/
For future elections, on-line voting should be an option.

 

I would have thought it feasible, as is done elsewhere, at least to put the necessary paperwork online (if necessary in the members-only section of the website), so that you could download and print a copy of the ballot paper. A PDF of a scan of a signed version could then be e-mailed back if that were deemed acceptable. The more members who are willing to use an online process, the less that the Trust will have to pay in posting out everything.

 

Don't underestimate the significant IT costs of running a secure, authenticated, IT system, particularly given that to a large extent, the costs are independent of the number of users (so the per-user cost is high for small organisations).

Tom