A Polling Meeting and Fight Practice will be held on Labour Day Monday, September 5th at The Hamilton Aviary (85 Oak Knoll Dr, Hamilton, ON L8S 4C2) at 5:00 PM instead of the usual 7:00 PM start time.
If you are unable to attend the Sept. 5th Polling Meeting, there will be a second Polling Meeting on September 12th at the Dundas Lions Memorial Community Centre (10 Market St S, Dundas, ON L9H 5G4) at 7:00 PM.
For at least two meetings following the Candidate(s) Meeting, the Baronial Seneschal will have polling forms available to be filled out by the populace attending the meeting and collected that same evening. The Baronial Seneschal will keep a tally of who has returned a poll, and whether they are paid members or not. (Baronial Meetings Monday, September 5th & Monday, September 12th)
NOTE: Fight Practice will still be available to those not wishing to participate in the Polling Meeting.
To participate in the baronial polling, the baronial populace must meet one of the following requirements:
a) Be a paid member of the Society in good standing living in the boundaries of the Barony of Ben Dunfirth.
b) Served at some point in the past two years as a baronial officer.
c) Received from the Barony of Ben Dunfirth at any point a baronial award.
d) On their honour, claim to be participating members of the Barony and claim to have attended at least six baronial meetings in the last year.
e) Attend a baronial polling meeting
Blank polling forms will be numbered but not tracked or correspond to specific members of the populace. Polling forms will ask for whether the voting person is a paid member or not, and list the nominated candidates to be ranked numerically (i.e., “1”, “2”, “3”, etc), with “1” being the most preferred choice, and higher numbers being less preferred choices. Polls that are not filled out completely, and with/or without unique sequential ranks for all the candidates will be considered spoiled and not counted.
If only one candidate is participating in the selection, the poll will be a simple vote of confidence of “0” for confidence and/or support, or “1” for no confidence or support (following the same kind of process used for multiple candidates — the closer the score is to 0, the more approved the candidate is.
At the end of the polling meetings, the Baronial Seneschal will choose a scrutinizer or second impartial person to participate in the tallying of polls — this could be the baronial pursuivant, or another member of the group who is not a nominee, or a representative of the kingdom. The polls will then be totalled, with subtotals counted for members and non-members, with the lowest total for a candidate indicating the most desired selection by the Barony. The results will be conveyed to the Crown within the week of the end of the polling meetings, and the physical polling forms will be turned over to the Kingdom Seneschal within 30 days. The results of the tally will be kept in strict confidence of the Crown and not shared with any other person.
For more information on the Baronial Selection Procedure, including information on Polling Meetings and the Announcement of New Baronial Office, please see the newsletter on the Baronial Selection Procedure.
