I've always assumed that the people who abstain from one vote are not the same people who abstain from another vote and that the reasons are varied. I hope Council will work to revise the way it works and adopt a more modern model incorporating, as our incoming president Lessa Kanani'opua Pelayo-Lozada suggested, working/study sessions. Perhaps in preparation for such changes we might reach out to councilors and ask if they want to share why they've abstained from a vote.
In the interests of full disclosure I actually cast my first abstention vote this morning. It was because a document we were asked to approve was not available ahead of the meeting on the website and, although staff reacted quickly to make it available, I was uncomfortable voting on a document I was having difficulty reading via Zoom and hadn't thoroughly reviewed.
Eileen
-- Eileen M. Palmer Executive Director Libraries of Middlesex Automation Consortium NJLA Chapter Councilor to the ALA 27 Mayfield Ave. Edison, NJ 08837 (732) 750-2525 ext. 103 (732) 225-0910 (fax) empalmer@lmxac.org
On 6/27/2022 9:40 AM, Sonnet Ireland via ALA Connect wrote:
01000181a56465b9-b2f6a87d-e888-4416-833a-519155695747-000000@email.amazonses.com"> I replied to the wrong thread, so I'm sharing it here... I'll admit that I abstained during a vote Saturday, but that was because I'm virtual... and...
Re: Votes to abstain | | | I replied to the wrong thread, so I'm sharing it here... I'll admit that I abstained during a vote Saturday, but that was because I'm virtual... and there was one resolution with amendments that got very confusing for me by the time of the vote. At that point, I was unsure of what exact aspect we were voting on, and it wasn't repeated nor was it on the screen. But I did email governance after the meeting to suggest keeping it on the screen and having it repeated verbally immediately before taking the vote, and that helped a lot (for me) with today's meeting.
------------------------------ Sonnet Ireland Library Director She/Her/Hers ------------------------------ | | Forward |
Original Message: Sent: Jun 26, 2022 09:59 AM | |
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Original Message:
Sent: 6/27/2022 9:40:00 AM
From: Sonnet Ireland
Subject: RE: Votes to abstain
I replied to the wrong thread, so I'm sharing it here...
I'll admit that I abstained during a vote Saturday, but that was because I'm virtual… and there was one resolution with amendments that got very confusing for me by the time of the vote. At that point, I was unsure of what exact aspect we were voting on, and it wasn't repeated nor was it on the screen. But I did email governance after the meeting to suggest keeping it on the screen and having it repeated verbally immediately before taking the vote, and that helped a lot (for me) with today's meeting.
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Sonnet Ireland
Library Director
She/Her/Hers
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