{"id":37822,"date":"2017-10-16T17:57:28","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T23:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=37822"},"modified":"2017-10-16T17:57:28","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T23:57:28","slug":"your-vote-matters-in-saitsas-board-of-directors-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2017\/10\/16\/your-vote-matters-in-saitsas-board-of-directors-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Your vote matters in SAITSA’s board of directors election"},"content":{"rendered":"

S<\/span>AITSA is encouraging students to vote for who they want to represent them in the upcoming Board of Directors (BOD) election.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Your vote is important because as a SAITSA<\/a> fee paying member, you have the right to decide who represents you,\u201d said Alysson Torres-Gillett, the Vice-President Academic<\/a> for SAITSA.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to elect people who care and want to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachel Paris, Manager of Governance and Advocacy for SAITSA, describes a board member as someone who is a steward of the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey look out for the best interests for the membership. They will make decisions on behalf of the membership that has selected them and will make decisions that are best for that body and also the organization as a whole,\u201d Paris said.<\/p>\n

The election began on Tuesday, Sept. 5, when the nomination process opened to the student body. Candidates were able to enter the race up until Wednesday, Sept. 27, when the last nomination period closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to vote for just anybody. You should vote because you want to search for those quality people. Maybe track them down in the hallways and ask them what are they about, how are they going to try and represent peoples interests as a whole?\u201d said Mitchell Holt, the current chair of the BOD.<\/p>\n

Last years election was presented with a low candidate turn out, with only 12 people running for one of the 15 spots on the board.<\/p>\n

In this scenario, students were asked to give a \u201cyes or no\u201d vote to the few candidates who were in the running.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of the 15 positions that needed to be filled, only eight were filled,\u201d Torres-Gillet said.<\/p>\n

Voter turnout across the student union and student association is relatively low, with SAIT\u2019s voter turnout typically in the seven per cent to 10 per cent range, says Paris.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not really a good representation because a lot of votes do come from the school of business. So they\u2019re voting in who they want, which is good for them, but if those people who are elected aren\u2019t necessarily good for everyone else, then everyone\u2019s just not being well represented when your voter turn out is that low,\u201d said Paris.<\/p>\n

The voting process is done electronically and is easily accessible to SAIT students through their email.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as there\u2019s 16 people or more running, lets say there\u2019s 20 people who run, you would select the top 15 that you would want elected. But you don\u2019t have to choose 15. If you felt like you only wanted to select 10 then you could just select the 10 you wanted,\u201d Paris said.<\/p>\n

When choosing your representatives, look for students who are knowledgeable, have realistic goals and a passion for bettering your student experience. – Alysson Torres-Gillet<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

SAITSA will also have three polling stations set up on campus to promote the voting process to those who are unaware, as well as encourage those who have not cast their vote online yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen choosing your representatives, look for students who are knowledgeable, have realistic goals and a passion for bettering your student experience,\u201d Torres-Gillett said.<\/p>\n

The voting period will begin at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 4, and will close at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAITSA is encouraging students to vote wisely for who they want to politically represent them in the upcoming Board of Directors (BOD) election. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":38230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 BOD Election","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,510],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-image","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-campus-2","8":"category-saitsa","9":"post_format-post-format-image"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37822"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38749,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37822\/revisions\/38749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}