Results of 2017 Nominet non-executive director election

[atlas]

http://info.nominet.uk/3R2A-7691-B7UQQAE3F/cr.aspx

We are delighted to announce that Kelly Salter has been appointed as our new non-executive director following this year’s vote for the member-elected vacancy.

We would like to thank all the candidates: Denesh Bhabuta, Phil Buckingham and Jacob Colton for taking part and thank Denesh for his contribution to the Board over the last three years. We look forward to working with Kelly and extend her a warm welcome to Nominet’s Board.

 

[Phil B]

http://info.nominet.uk/3R2A-7691-B7UQQAE3F/cr.aspx

Hi

 

[Phil B]

Hello everyone, Many many thanks for all of you that voted for me. I am absolutely devastated and totally frustrated to come second again. Again I got loads and loads and loads more individual members' votes than Kelly. If you take out 293.000 votes advantage (over ALL the other candidates) that Kelly has ( by virtue of working for Namesco) ,then clearly I would have won. Conflicts of interest ??????? Really sorry I ve let you all down . I think it is safe to say that Nominet is longer a membership organisation .and is being controlled by five individuals , all non UK residents , all who sit on the ICANN Registrar Stakeholder Group and all who work for the top foreign owned Registrars. and all who voted for Kelly . . What has Nominet . .UK BECOME. This would never be allowed to happen on .DE (for instance) . Isn't Its time to cancel your membership . What 's the benefit ???

 

[atlas]

all non UK residents ... and all who work for the top foreign owned Registrars...

Freakin' foreigners.... Always causing problems.

 

[ian]

Hello everyone, Many many thanks for all of you that voted for me. I am absolutely devastated and totally frustrated to come second again. Again I got loads and loads and loads more individual members' votes than Kelly. If you take out 293.000 votes advantage (over ALL the other candidates) that Kelly has ( by virtue of working for Namesco) ,then clearly I would have won. Conflicts of interest ??????? Really sorry I ve let you all down . I think it is safe to say that Nominet is longer a membership organisation .and is being controlled by five individuals , all non UK residents , all who sit on the ICANN Registrar Stakeholder Group and all who work for the top foreign owned Registrars. and all who voted for Kelly . . What has Nominet . .UK BECOME. This would never be allowed to happen on .DE (for instance) . Isn't Its time to cancel your membership . What 's the benefit ???

Gracious in defeat I see!

The outcome did seem inevitable, I have no idea why anyone else runs tbh, but then again, we voted in David Thornton last time, and see how that worked out

 

[RobM]

She was always going to win - I don't really know why nominet 'pretend' to be non monopolising - there's nothing anyone can do about it anyway.

 

[RobM]

But I'm sure we'll see Kelly on here, talking to the smaller members, listening to their concerns, fighting their corner at nominet meetings. No way would she be a nominet 'yes' woman put in place to appease anyone unhappy with the way the situation is but with no power to effect any changes. No way would she have vested interests in any price rises, new extenstions, or other avenues for increase of profit for Namesco..... Yes I'm sure she'd love to come here now and introduce herself to the community.

 

[martin-s]

She was always going to win - I don't really know why nominet 'pretend' to be non monopolising and non corrupt - there's nothing anyone can do about it anyway.

Only 267 of the 2518 members voted. If more voted, Phil could easily have won.

The problem is that campaigning is so difficult, because there's no published data on how to reach members.

 

[RobM]

Would all the people's votes (who didn't vote) added together be enough?

 

[martin-s]

Less than 100 more votes would have done it.

 

[monaghan]

Only 267 of the 2518 members voted.

That's the main problem, most people seem to only want to get the wholesale domain prices or access to the DAC and are not bothered with the running of the organisation.

 

[martin-s]

Voting took less than 60 seconds. Educate people on why voting will impact them, and how easy it is, and why wouldn't they?

I don't know what outreach Phil did, but the tone of it would only have won the vote of small registrars who were already concerned enough to vote.

Without risking discussing politics (we don't want to go there again do we?), you need to win the middle ground.

 

[Rob_F]

Hello everyone, Many many thanks for all of you that voted for me. I am absolutely devastated and totally frustrated to come second again. Again I got loads and loads and loads more individual members' votes than Kelly. If you take out 293.000 votes advantage (over ALL the other candidates) that Kelly has ( by virtue of working for Namesco) ,then clearly I would have won. Conflicts of interest ??????? Really sorry I ve let you all down . I think it is safe to say that Nominet is longer a membership organisation .and is being controlled by five individuals , all non UK residents , all who sit on the ICANN Registrar Stakeholder Group and all who work for the top foreign owned Registrars. and all who voted for Kelly . . What has Nominet . .UK BECOME. This would never be allowed to happen on .DE (for instance) . Isn't Its time to cancel your membership . What 's the benefit ???

There's always next time.

You had my vote, for what it was worth.

- Rob

 

[VolkerG]

The elections at Nominet far less skewed in one direction than some would let you believe. The cap of 3% of the votes cast as well as the fact that some of the larger registrars do not even vote regularly or vote for the same candidate should show anyone that the election of any one candidate is far from certain. Larger registrars represent a larger volume of registrants so it is natural that they have a louder voice, but the cap on their votes serves as a balancing factor, so no group should be able to dominate elections or votes.

David beat me fair and square two years ago, despite me having support from some of the larger registrars.
Last year, was a challenge as well.
This year, the race between Kelly and Phil was closer than many expected and a few smaller member votes would have made a difference.Of course Kelly can count on the support of the company she works for, but that is neither unfair nor problematic.

If anything, I am disheartened by the reaction Phil showed above. I would have expected a more gracious response.

I do however agree on one thing: Your votes do matter. Only if you do not vote, things like Trump or Brexit can happen!

 

[gimpydog]

Only if you do not vote, things like Trump or Brexit can happen!

For the record, and at the risk of opening old wounds, Brexit happened because people did vote.

The turnout was a very healthy 72% - much higher than the 64% who voted to join the EEC in the first place.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...or-eu-referendum-vote-could-break-uk-records/

You were elected on a 15% turnout.

https://nominet-prod.s3.amazonaws.c...n-executive-directors-results-2016.pdf?x59965

 

[Whois-Search]

@VolkerG a few things:

1. In the year David beat you the large first preference votes went to Dickie
2. In the year you won the large first preference votes went to you not Kelly
3. This year (just like it took you two years) the large first preference votes went to Kelly

We know how the system works and it has been the same for the past six years with large registrar candidates winning everytime in first place:

2017 - Kelly Salter (Namesco) - 474,220 votes (stage 1)
2016 - Volker Greimann (Key-Systems) - 1,023,326 votes (stage 1)
2015 - Dickie Armour (Freeparking) - 780,392 votes (stage 1)
2014 - Oliver Hope (Hosteurope) - 511,019 votes (stage 1)
2013 - Dickie Armour (Freeparking) - 501,811 votes (stage 1)
2012 - Thomas Vollrath (Hosteurope) - 357,700 votes (stage 1)

Candidates like Denesh, David or even Phil can only win in a two seat year and under STV hope to pickup enough votes in further stages. You now find yourself in a one seat year with guaranteed re-election in 2019.

Also Nominet can hide behind the three percentage cap all it likes....

We know how heavily weighted those votes are when it comes to the final results:

Total valid votes: 1,173,706
1173706 / 100 x 3 = 35,211 cap

So every member in the top 16 (who voted) above 35,211 votes had 35,211 votes each:

1. 1&1 Internet AG 1,919,582
2. GoDaddy.com, LLP 837,643
3. TUCOWS Inc 493,232
4. Corporation Service Company (UK) Limited 317,693
5. Namesco Limited 293,506
6. LCN.com Ltd 200,224
7. Register.com Inc 199,938
8. UK2 Limited 163,678
9. Iomart Hosting Ltd 160,815
10. One.com A/S 103,671
11. Gandi 97,138
12. PDR Ltd. d/b/a PublicDomainRegistry.com 86,661
13. Key-Systems GmbH 77,725
14. Crazy Domains FZ-LLC 47,087
15. British Telecommunications plc 38,957
16. 1api GmbH 36,447

 

[VolkerG]

For the record, and at the risk of opening old wounds, Brexit happened because people did vote.

The turnout was a very healthy 72% - much higher than the 64% who voted to join the EEC in the first place.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...or-eu-referendum-vote-could-break-uk-records/

You were elected on a 15% turnout.

https://nominet-prod.s3.amazonaws.c...n-executive-directors-results-2016.pdf?x59965

Much higher than this years' 10-something percent.

And sometimes it is not how many people vote, but how many of those who feel strongly but think it is already in the bag do not.

 

[RobM]

How can you be a member for over 3 years and that is your first post? lol

 

[RobM]

No probs - thought it might be a bug

 

[Whois-Search]

The 35,211 vote cap is incorrect because it's 3% of the wrong figure.

According to this, the total number of uncapped votes was 4,877,684.

So the 3% cap was 146,330 votes, and only the first nine on your list would have been affected by it.

However, the capped vote total (1,173,706) and the number of participating voters (267) tell us that no more than five of the big registrars actually voted.

No 1,173,706 is the total capped votes so no one can have more than 3% of that