Our name is important to most of us as an essential aspect of our identity. Being Unitarians, we have diverse beliefs about what name best represents us and is sufficiently inclusive of our members and future ones. Consensus is an ideal that is also not easy to achieve in this case. Next best is a fair, comprehensive and democratic process of voting.

There will be two votes. The first one will be to rank the many popular suggestions for the potential alternate name to Church. Thanks to a great ranked polling platform that our Techies have found, the most popular name will become the contender for the next and final vote between it and the Unitarian Church of Vancouver.

Not everyone is ‘whatever’ about our name and the process of choosing a name we can all live with, which may be the one we already have, will take time. We hope to have the ranked polling platform for the alternative name online this month or by December. The final vote will most likely not happen until the new year.

Please look at the sample of how ranked polling works.

 

RANKED BALLOTS

 

BACKGROUND

We will need to determine what percentage of members will constitute a representative vote.

And what percentage is needed to declare one option a winner. This may be different from a simple majority.

The Board of Directors is the elected decision-making body and will determine the percentage to be used for voting, referencing the by-laws for Special Resolutions.

 

THE BALLOT

Multiple names have been suggested by engaged members of the congregation.

A survey was conducted in June 2022 polling over 100 congregations about their opinions regarding what we call ourselves. The most popular names from the poll will be listed on the ballot.

 

SAMPLE BALLOT using fruit for explanation

 

Rank any number of options in your order of preference.

Apples                         4

Bananas                      2

Oranges                      1

Grapes                        3

 

EVALUATE THE VOTES

Apples                         10%

Bananas                      30%

Oranges                      35%

Grapes                        25%

MINIMUM THRESHOLD IS A PERCENTAGE THAT EXCEEDS 50% 

 

Eliminate the name with the fewest votes, Apples.  Redistribute votes. Voters whose #1 choice was Apples will move to their  #2 choice. It now becomes their #1 choice. Depending on where these votes go, if equally distributed to Bananas, Oranges and Grapes, we now have the following percentages.

Bananas                      38 %

Oranges                       36 %

Grapes                        26 %

 

Eliminate the name with the fewest votes, Grapes. Voters whose #1 choice was Grapes will move to their next choice. Bananas passes the minimum threshold of greater than 50%. This would happen if most ‘Grape’ voters threw their next choice to ‘Bananas’ thus allowing it to surpass ‘Oranges.’

Bananas                      52 %

Oranges                      48 %

 

FINAL VOTE IS HELD AT A LATER DATE BETWEEN OUR CURRENT NAME OF UNITARIAN CHURCH OF VANCOUVER AND THE CONTENDING NAME (WHICH WILL NOT BE BANANAS). 

OUR BY-LAWS RECOMMEND 75% FOR SPECIAL  RESOLUTIONS.  THE BOARD WILL MAKE THE DECISION.  IF THE THRESHOLD IS NOT MET BY EITHER OPTION, THE CURRENT NAME REMAINS.