2017 CMS elections

Saturday, July 01, 2017 12:34 PM

Cast your vote in August for CMS president-elect and delegates/alternate delegates to the AMA

by Kate Alfano, CMS Communications Coordinator

On Tuesday, Aug. 1, you will receive an invitation to vote for a slate of Colorado Medical Society officers from Survey & Ballot Systems (SBS). To assure your election ballot email arrives safely in your inbox, please add “noreply@directvote.net” as an approved sender (directions below). Each ballot is individualized to the voting member and includes your member number and passcode to cast your ballot. If CMS does not have your email address, email membership@cms.org or call 720-858-6306. The following physicians have announced their candidacy. Read their candidate statements on the CMS election webpage.

President-elect
Debra Parsons, MD

AMA Delegates/Alternate Delegates (eight positions open, listed in alpha order)
David Downs, MD, FACP
Henrique Fernandez, MD, FACP
Carolynn Francavilla Brown, MD
Jan Kief, MD
Rachelle M. Klammer, MD
Tamaan Osbourne-Roberts, MD
Lynn Parry, MSc, MD
Patrick Pevoto, MD, RPh, MBA
Brigitta Robinson, MD, FACS
Michael Volz, MD
Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH

This is the second all-member election and, like last year, all ballots will be cast electronically. All CMS members are encouraged to use this opportunity to vote, affirming the significant repurposing of our organization that aims to engage all members in the governance process. We also ask you to consider seeking a leadership position next year. More details on the 2018 nomination period will be available in September. Thank you for your participation in our medical society.

What does it mean to add an address to a safe senders list?

Email newsletters can be blocked or filtered into the bulk folder especially now that email filters are focusing more strongly on “grey mail” or commercial mail. As a result, you may miss important announcements or alerts, like this one for the all-member election.

To avoid these situations, add “noreply@directvote.net” to your Safe Senders List. Constant Contact, the email blast company CMS uses to send membership emails, has compiled a list of the most commonly used email programs with easy-to-follow instructions on how to add email addresses to your Safe Senders List. Access the instructions at http://tinyurl.com/constant-contact-safe-sender.

Sample ballot, instructions on how to vote for candidates of your choice and explanation of how election will be run

In order for candidates to be elected to a Colorado Medical Society office each candidate is required to receive a majority vote of the membership. This year's election has an uncontested race for president-elect and has 11 AMA delegate /alternate delegate candidates running for eight positions. The vote for president-elect will feature a simple yes or no choice made by checking the box next to the name that will result in a majority vote for the president-elect. The AMA delegate/alternate delegate election will use a preferential voting ballot to elect the top eight candidates with a majority vote.

Here’s how it will work. All CMS members with an email address will be emailed a link to a ballot with instructions from Survey & Ballot Systems. Candidates will appear on the ballot in alphabetical order and voters will be instructed to rank the entire 11-person field in order of preference with 1 being the first choice, 2 the second and so on. In the accurately filled out ballot example below, all 11 candidates have been checked in preferred order by the person voting. Once the ballot closes at midnight Sept. 1, the computer will tabulate the results to see if one candidate receives a majority vote. The program will then drop the person with the lowest votes and reallocate that candidate’s votes to the rest of the field, continuing the process of dropping the next lowest candidate until one candidate has received a majority vote. Once the first person is elected, that person will be removed from the next tabulation with their votes being reallocated to the rest of the field, including the candidates dropped in round one. The computer will then re-tabulate votes for the second open position following the same procedure of dropping the lowest candidate(s) and reallocating those votes until a second person receives a majority vote. The computer will repeat this procedure with all remaining candidates until the top eight candidates are elected.

The election company will certify the results of the election and provide CMS with the results on Sept. 1. Colorado Medical Society CEO Alfred Gilchrist will first share the results with the candidates and then inform the entire membership via email. The AMA Delegation as a whole will then meet to determine which candidates will serve as delegates and which as alternate delegates depending on experience and specific needs of the position.