Why They Shelved VFM at WWU

From: AS Elections Coordinator
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 10:08 PM
To: Mark Latham
Subject: RE: VFM Update

Hey Mark,
 
I have some news regarding VFM at Western. The vote to approve VFM was set to happen last Wednesday, but due to circumstances unrelated to VFM, it was tabled, and moved to be voted on tonight. Tonight at the Board meeting, members of the Board expressed concern of possible legal issues with VFM (in the area of taking outside money for such a contest), as well as concern of the possibility of the election process becoming politicized. The Board believes that Western's election process is "very sucessful" in relation to election processes at other universities. Finally they also had concerns about the complexity of VFM. Many members of the board, even though being informed about VFM for the past few months, some more than others, that a number still find the whole process complex, and thought if it was complex for them, that it would be complex for the electorate as well.
 
To sum this up, the Board has tabled VFM indefinitely. However they didn't rule out the possibility of having VFM happen next year at Western. More time is needed to study it and address these concerns according to the Board.
 
I am still attaching to this document, the VFM code that would have been likely approved, had VFM been approved. This would have been the governing document of VFM containing all the rules. This is more of an FYI now, but since you're continually reshaping to make VFM work better, this is how our committee tried to address many concerns about VFM to make it work better for everyone at Western.
 
Thanks again for your advice and insight, and coming down for those meetings back in October and Novemeber. I still believe VFM is a very interesting concept, and should be experimented with elsewhere. Hopefully other institutions will try it for themselves.
 
~Ben
 
Ben Murphy
AS Elections Coordinator
Western Washington University