Posted by Daniel Lerner in Question for the candidates: why are you all running?
Well, the subject line says it all. Why are you running (as Prez or VP)?

I’ll be frank. I’m not really look for the “platform/campaign answer” (I want to make the club great again, or something like that). I’ve read the campaign/HQ posts, and read the answers to some of the leadership/communication questions that have been posed.

I actually want to know why you personally are running.

Because, I’m not I know why most of you are running, and that’s usually what influences my vote (and probably most of the members’ votes). Some of you have held the position before, and knowing what it was like I’m always surprised a person would want to do a second time (and that’s assuming it went smoothly the first time ‘round). Some of you are running but we really haven’t heard from you. Some of you are running with very, very limited experience in the type of roles you need to understand if you are going to be appointing a cabinet and deciding when to agree or not agree with them. So I’m really curious.

Just to help, if I was asked the question in the three elections I ran, here would be my honest answers:

December 2008: “I was actually a bit surprised Sarah asked be to run as her VP for her third term. But I felt very confident from my roles in the PDept and my recent appointment as an FComm, and I was becoming quite confident in Command, including moderating a major discussion on our important edicts [what would later form our first bylaws]. Because of her experience already as Prez, I felt confident that I could learn from her in the role as VP, and help her with the work she had already started.” [Note: I was really naive back in 2008, and you can see that I didn’t expect I would be President in 4 months…]

March 2015: “I knew some major changes need to happen in STF at that time if we were essentially going to be able to move forward as a club, and strong leadership was going to be required. My initial thought was that I should run for President (it had been 7 years since I was last president and felt I was almost ready to return to that role again). But then I heard Kat was also interested in running, and after we talked I realized we would compliment each other very well, and I agreed to run as her VP, with a combined plan for how to address some of the major issues that were anticipated for 2015.”

November 2017: “I knew that we were coming up to the switch to Exodus, and I believed that I was the right person for the job. I didn’t believe (and still don’t believe) that was my ego talking - I believe that my prior experience as VP and Prez during the switch to Drupal gave me the unique experience to be Prez during the switch to Exodus. I was also not that thrilled with the outgoing term, and therefore began planning months in advance of the election what I thought was needed in a President, found a running mate very early on who I knew would compliment what I wanted to do in my term as President and decided to prepare for a beating and run in the upcoming election. From my multiple times in the executive role, I knew how painful it could be, but I knew I wanted to be in the role of President when we made the switch to Exodus.”

So those are examples of a non-political/campaign answer to the question.

Why are you personally running in this election?

-Daniel

Hi Daniel, thanks for asking this, I’m surprised that the question hasn’t been asked already to be honest.

I’ve now been part of this club coming up three years, it’s been a busy time and I’ve been involved in a fair bit around STF. The club has given me great joy as well as frustration and over the past couple of elections after turning down some query’s to run as VP as I wasn’t ready to head back to Command and had other things to worry about, the idea of running for President became stronger in my mind while I looked to help out the club and learn more about it’s workings from other positions. James and I work very well together with our discussions being open, honest and straight forward and we both have a strong desire to lead the club and move us forward post-Exodus. I’m not interested in any sweeping changes, I’m running because I want to support the people doing the good work behind the scenes, and make sure that our members have the best place to RP that we can provide.

Dave.