ROYAL INSTITUTION OF CHARTERED SURVEYORS
RICS CARIBBEAN BOARD ELECTIONS
RICS Americas is pleased to confirm the election process for the RICS Caribbean Board is now complete. The voting period ran from 7 pm ET on Monday October 31, 2011 through 5:00 pm ET on Monday November 21.
Votes cast by mail or fax: 0
Votes cast by telephone: 1
Votes cast online: 114
Total number of votes cast: 115
Number of votes found to be invalid: 2 due to duplication
Total number of votes to be counted: 113
Total number of members eligible to vote: 308
Turnout: 36.7%
Result (two to elect)
Eric Allen MRICS, Kingston, Jamaica 61 ELECTED
Peter Morris FRICS, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago 55 ELECTED
James Andrews FRICS, George Town, Grand Cayman 31
Andrew Mallalieu MRICS, Christ Church, Barbados 25
Ian Rollitt FRICS, Bridgetown, Barbados 23
RICS CARIBBEAN BOARD SELECTION
Six members expressed interest in applying for selection to the Board, with five of the six completing the required application process. The Caribbean Nominating Committee reviewed the written submissions of all candidates between October 31 and November 25, and held phone interviews with short listed candidates on Monday November 28. The two individuals appointed to the board as a result of the selection process are:
Charisse Griffith-Charles MRICS Trincity, Trinidad and Tobago
Ivan Hinkson FRICS San Fernando, Trindad and Tobago
The online ballot for the election gave voters an opportunity to ask questions about the process. Of the 113 valid online submissions, two posed questions.
1) How do you ensure that members only cast one vote?
Each ballot was linked to an individual email address, which in turn was linked to the name of an active or retired MRICS, FRICS or AssocRICS with a primary address in the Caribbean.
RICS Americas staff reviewed the list of email addresses at the beginning of the process to check that each of the 300 members with email accounts (8 RICS Caribbean members do not have email accounts) had unique email addresses. In three cases, several members shared an email address with their employer/employees and thus were emailed to request those individuals personal email addresses.
At the end of the process, the email addresses were reviewed again, to make sure no email address was linked to more than one ballot/vote. There was one case where one individual was linked to three ballots/votes. Two of the three ballots/votes were deemed invalid and these two results are not included in the voting tally.
2) Why are only two members of the board being replaced?
In fact there are four positions being filled, two by election and two by selection. RICS Corporate Management stipulates that ideally all national boards (in this case, it is a regional board) have 25% of the seats chosen by election, which is what RICS Caribbean has now accomplished as a result of the Fall 2011 election process.
The RICS Caribbean Board terms of reference states that the Board can have up to eight members, each of whom can serve for up to two three-year terms. The four positions already filled by Sanjay Amin FRICS, Simon Watson FRICS, Uche Obi FRICS and Stuart Kennedy FRICS were selected in January 2010, and thus these positions are not up for re-selection until January 2013.
