Update - appears there is a 3rd informal slate

 

Update on earlier post about two apparent slates, it now seems there are three 'informal' slates in play this time around. The third slate is, as expected, is an alliance between incumbents who are participating in a meet your current directors online forum. The currant slate is trusting that fruit of their incumbency will be re-election (or in the case of Holmes who was appointed, first election).

Two apparent slates in UNA elections

Slates and informal alliances are nothing new in UNA elections. Both times I ran I did so in collaboration with others. One thing that seems a bit different this time is that the 'slates' are not directly evident or explicit.

The two apparent slates are: Cheng, Glasheim, and Liu (CGL).  They have combined to form a facebook 'community discussion page' called UBC Neighbours.  At least on of them (Fei Liu) is directly mentioning them in their campaign literature.  The other slate consists of the AMS student society slate: Co, Gan, Ngieng, and Proust (AMS). They do not appear to be mentioning each other (at this time) in their campaign materials, but instead have the AMS using its official communications networks to campaign for them. 

The resident slate of CGL represents a typical informal alliance between candidates who realize there may be some benefit in combining efforts. However, because they all come from the same local area this might not be the best tactical alliance for their electoral success. With the UNA's no more than three per local area rule a combine of candidates from the same local area will only be truly advantageous if the CGL Slate ask voters to only vote for their three candidates - and there is no evidence of that taking place.

The AMS slate is a new intervention in UNA electoral politics. The AMS fought hard to retain their appointed (undemocratic) voting director on the UNA Board and with the recent bylaw changes lost that particular struggle. The appearance of four candidates (from three different local areas) being backed by the AMS in this election is a politically astute tactical approach, on the part of the AMS,  to overcome the loss of their appointed seat.  Their campaign approach is also carefully targeted and specifically aimed at studnets connected to the AMS political communications network.  The several campaign bursts don't specifically say vote only AMS Slate. However the implication is strong: these are the AMS's "UNA student candidates" the advertisements proclaim. Given the AMS candidates are spread across three local areas their chances are strong to elect at least two, if not three, candidates. This is especially likely if a strong core (perhaps as little as 75 voters) vote only AMS Slate. Also of note is that the AMS Slate appears to be focussing on getting studnets living in the UNA to sign up for membership and vote - if that works it will give them an even stronger potential.

There may likely be other informal alliances in play - it is hard to tell. There will be some of the network effect where people who know a candidate might ask them for suggestions.  Then there are the circles of people who have faithfully followed UNA issues, are engaged in core activities, and neighbours of current directors etc.  Each of the incumbents will have their own particular networks and the most successful of them may well not need to campaign as actively and obviously as those trying to break into the game.

To a certain extent the new bylaws, by lengthening terms and electing all directors at the same time, have reduced the democratic effectiveness of the UNA and at the same time made the need to electoral slates more pressing.  Previously elections were every year  only electing half the Directors at a time - terms were shorter as well. This made certain that UNA Directors had to maintain direct contact with their respective electorates. With lengthening terms and running all elections at the same time we may gain on cost efficiencies but we lose a little on accountability and slates may become more the normal. But then, who knows? It's easier to retroactively predict what happened, then it is to accurately predict what will happen!  ;) 

Tony Cheng campaign letter.

Dear all UNA members, 

 

My name is Tony Cheng and I am one of the candidates in the coming UNA Board of Directors election. 

 

My family and myself moved to Hampton Place in Aug 2019 and then we moved to our own Wesbrook Place condo in Aug 2020. We love this community and my son joined the basketball training team in UNA. I had 30 years’ experience in IT management and had worked in several multinational companies under cross cultural environment.  

 

UNA is not only an organization to provide recreational activities but it can also integrate your voice, ideas, and concerns to the parties which affect your daily life. Even something that is out of the control of UNA, at least we have the freedom to air our voice to affect the decision of these parties rather than do nothing. 

 

If I am lucky to be elected and have chance to serve you, I will cooperate with other elected directors and focus on the following points: 

 

l  Fire prevention is always better than firefighting: We need to set up a committee to have a holistic view about the risks in our community and set up achievable action plans.  For your easy understanding, here are some examples: 

Ø  Can we recommend the setup of traffic lights or speed control rather than just zebra crossing outside the 16^thstreet entrance of U-Hill Secondary School?   It is said some students were almost killed at that point by speeding cars some time ago. 

Ø  Should UNA help to communicate with M.L.A. directly to justify much more resources for UBC RCMP? Lockers break-in cases in our area happened again and again and one answer that we got from RCMP was resource issue.  Here come some burglary cases. The situation is worse now.  What’s next? 

 

l  The channel to hear your voice: UNA needs to build an easy communication channel to hear from you, so that UNA can know the directions objectively to serve you or collaborate with other stakeholders. Currently, the email address support@myuna.ca can gather your opinion with a service number and the current UNA team did great job to build it. According to my experience in IT management, we can do more. Below are some examples.

Ø  Categorize the email cases into different aspects: According to the number of cases, we prioritize which aspects that UNA needs to handle first.

Ø  Outstanding case report to the UNA board: That can be a clue to evaluate the resource need of the UNA team.

 

l  Environmental conservation: The government announced that by 2035, all cars should be zero emissions. We need to prepare for that. A demand & supply survey can be proactively conducted by UNA about the number of chargers and the number of Electricity Vehicles in all UNA residential areas. Then we can understand the gap to determine if we need to increase the number of public chargers.  

 

l  Land usage: Need to revise the requirement of recruiting committee members, UBC students are the prime key stakeholders should be involved.

 

In conclusion, a lot of great candidates with great ideas and network connections participate in this election. If I am lucky, I would like to work with them to serve you. With my deep experience in management, I am strong in making things happen and work together with the team to contribute my force to realize our ideas. I would like to seek your vote for me and build a splendid community together!!!

 

If you have any further ideas, you are welcome to contact me by email tonycheng.una.election@gmail.com.

 

Tony Cheng

Candidate for the UNA Board of Directors