SVR Elections 2760

[Primus Aurelius Timavus]

I am pleased to announce that our biennial elections will take place in December 2007. Per our Regulae, we will elect at least three curatores to lead our Societas for the next two years. I say at least three because the Regulae permit the election of 3-7 curatores (described as "officers" in the Regulae). We will open the cistae for only three candidates unless a motion is carried in the Comitia for a different number prior to the opening of voting.

Voting will begin on 7 December 2007 and will continue until noon (in Rome) on 12 December 2007.

I call on all interested parties to announce their candidacies and to campaign in the Comitia. Candidacies must be announced before 7 December (in Rome).

I also call on the present curatores to make known their intentions to seek reelection. I will not seek reelection.

This is an exciting time to lead the Societas. Your current curatores have striven to give the Societas a strong sense of stability and continuity after the rewriting of our Regulae two years ago. While we may have succeeded in this, in the opinion of several including myself, our Societas is somewhat more drab than it was before the revision which stripped away much of the offices, titles, pomp, and color of SVR. Our newly elected Curia will have the opportunity to lead the Societas beyond the steady, but boring, functioning that has largely marked the last two years. This really is a time when new ideas will make a difference to your SVR.

Timavus

[Aldus Marius]

Salvete Romani,

I won't be reenlisting. I'll run the site for as long as anyone can stand my retrograde approach; but I'd rather not do it as a Curator. For some reason that seems to have funnelled my energies into a lot of non-technical responsibilities that I'd rather see handled by someone who asked for them. I have the rest of my Roman life to get back to...and it'd be kind of nice to be able to function as a just-plain-Sodalis again, and not have the conversation freeze in place every time "The Admin" sticks his head in the room.

Actually, I'm planning to further the Societas in other ways this next year and more, chiefly by making in-person contact with other Romans-in-Spirit, and the groups they run in, in my area. I have friends in Nova Roma, the Society for Creative Anachronism, and The Roman Way in Texas; I'm also renewing ties with the academic and reenactor communities. I don't know how much actual travelling I'll be up to in the earlier part of next year; but I'd like to at least talk to folks, get them together or at least aware of each other, and hopefully get some of them in here to share their own homebrew Romanitas.

I will remain available to the new Curatores in a support capacity (actually, I think that could be said of most of our senior membership); and I won't leave the site in the lurch--if there are no declared candidates for my spot, I'll probably be dancing on the server 'til someone hires a gang of gladiators to fling me off. >({|;-)

In amicitia et fide,

[Q Valerius]

We all will be very sorry to see you go, Mari.

[Aldus Marius]

*blinks*

...I'm going somewhere...?

Na, I intend to spend the next two years the same way I did my first four: Being right here as a non-office-holding, but (hopefully) still useful and very productive Sodalis. The only "going" in my forecast will be on SVR recruiting runs! <bg>

(Unless, of course, you've lined up a gladiator gang...in which case we could probably raise next year's hosting fees just by selling tickets to the fight. Conditor Draco, can we squeeze that one into the Ludi schedule...? Cave canem, indeed!!) >({|;-]


In amicitia et fide,

[Q Valerius]

The ever-so-modest Marius of course brushes off the compliment. You may not be leaving SVR, but you've been invaluable these past two years in keeping our infrastructure from falling into ruins like the real Roma Antiqua.

[Quintus Servilius Priscus]

Salvete Omnes,

I am announcing my Candidacy for Curator. I feel being a former SVR Censor and due to the fact I am presently handling the Membership applications as Curator suffectus that I am well qualified for the job. Also, at the present time I am one of Nova Roma's five Tribunes of the Plebs. My term is up in December and I do not plan to run for office in NR for the foreseeable future. So, I will be able to devote more time to the Societas as one of the Curator's.

Quintus Servilius Priscus

[Horatius Piscinus]

Salvete Sodales omnes

I shall not be running as a Curator for next year. I have twice served as Consul in our Societus, and as a Curator, among other offices, and wrote the major portion of our current Regulae. It is long overdue for someone else to offer SVR some direction.

Instead, next year I shall serve as a Consul in Nova Roma. I assume that my time will be taken up even more by affairs there, but I shall still be around in SVR as well. You do not know what the evening breeze may bring, but there may become an opportunity to fostor a better understanding between our two societates in the years ahead.

Valete et bonam habete Fortunam

[Q Valerius]

I'm afraid, to the disappointment of some here, so I believe, that I also will not be running in the election. Though I may have served with modest distinction here before, I've far too much to be actively running (or helping to run) this website. I'll still be available, and will drop by every now and again, but I don't think I'd be the best candidate timewise for this next year.

Salvete atque valete.

[Q Valerius]

I want to further mention that I fully endorse Quintus Servius Priscus as rogator, and hope that in his name my once held vision for the Societas is actualized. Best of luck to you, amice.

[Cleopatra Aelia]

Just to make clear, I will not run for any office either. I had to resign from my last office and pass it to Quintus Servilius Priscus due to being to busy with running my own gladiator group. I'm off now to the next training session.

[Marcus Octavius Gracchus]

Salvete,

I, Marcus Octavius Gracchus, shall stand for Curator.

I am currently Censor of Nova Roma. I was consul there in MMDCCLV (when, if memory serves correctly, M. Moravius Piscinus was consul here... and since he's going to be consul of NR next year, I should try for office here...).

I currently host the SocietasViaRomana.net web site, but don't actively maintain the software.

I would like to do some programming work on this site. I have an open source project, the Baldrick Application Framework (www.baldrickframework.org), and have been looking for a community-oriented website on which to install applications built on this framework. With consent of the Curia, I would like to begin work on such tools as a blog, calendar, and more fully integrated message board.

Valete,
M. Octavius Gracchus

[Aldus Marius]

Salve, mi Gracche, et Salvete omnes!

...Well, whaddya know...somebody's buckin' for my spot. >({|;-)

(What--no Gladiators?) <g>

Actually, I am heartened to see another candidate in the race. Quintus Servilius deserves colleagues. The Curatorship and other functions of the Societas are so ill-defined in the Regula that they can really be whatever their holders decide to make of them. I regret that the first batch (myself included), while energetic, was not more visibly productive. Now that we've put out the fires and made sure the site's not going away, maybe our next (three? Dare I hope for four?) Curatores will have the chance to move this Societas in some new directions. (And I don't just mean the Web site either.)

Leviter,

[Primus Aurelius Timavus]

In view of the fact that only two sodales have declared their candidacy for three open positions, the Curia has postponed elections for one one week. Any new candidates must now declare before 14 December 2007 when voting will begin. The polls will close on 19 December 2007.

Timavus

[Valerius Claudius Iohanes]

Salvete, sodales.

Since so far only two viatores Societatis Viae Romanae have come forward to stand for office, I, Valerius Claudius Iohanes, will offer myself for election as Curator.

I can make no claim to have had much administrative experience, either for Internet boards or organizations. Nor can I cite any SVR or Nova-Roman offices that I've held.

So, do I have any positive qualifications at all?
- While I am not blessed with super-abundant free time, I do have some, and will make more as needed.
- I do have info technology experience from work, and some basic familiarity with HTML.
- As to administrative chores, the only problems I foresee would be technical ones, either software or server, or my lack of ready familiarity with the Regulae. But with colleagues and former Curators as backup, I do not think that any of that should get out of hand.
- Some intelligence; some Latin.
- But my best qualifications are that I'm willing, I've got my PC and DSL connection, and I'm available.

Quirites, I leave it to you. Valete omnes.

[Aldus Marius]

Salvete, amici Romani...

For any of you who may be considering putting in for a Curatorship, but are unsure what the job entails, here's a rundown:

The Regula itself, vague as it is, does list some specific duties and responsibilities of the Societas' "officers". We are, of course, elected by the Comitia; we serve for a two-year term. We are basically charged with:

- establishing the administrative procedures of the Societas;
- proposing policies for the Societas;
- overseeing elections held in the Comitia;
- maintaining the SVR Forum and the website;
- moderating the Forum;
- maintaining the Album Sodalium;
- conducting the biennial census;
- managing relations with persons and entities outside the Societas;
- and granting honorary titles or other forms of recognition to members and others.

No one Curator is expected to know how to do all of these things; that's why we have each other. The Curia is like any other workplace in that we divide the workload according to each Curator's interest and talents. Quintus Servilius, like his predecessor Cleopatra Aelia, is a better communicator and "people-person" than I am, so they handled the bulk of the "customer contact" work. Aurelius Timavus has a head for procedure; I have a head for tech stuff. We balance each other out. Each set of Curatores will come up with the division of labor that works best for their team. And of course they can always tap a gifted Sodalis, as we did Quintus Valerius and Publius Nonius during our hitch.

What little campaign talk we've had so far has revolved around technical issues. I've been trying to get us beyond that; what the SVR needs most for the next couple of years is energy and ideas. The Regula left it up to all of us, Curia and Comitia alike, to determine the Societas' procedures and policies. The Curia can make decrees; any Sodalis with an idea can put it through as a rogatio. Think this place could be more flavorful, more Roman? Want to point us in a new direction, or revive something that you feel we've lost? --Let's hear those proposals...especially, but not only, from the candidates.

In fide,

[Gnaeus Dionysius Draco]

Salvete,

Though I will not run for office, I wish all candidates the best of luck, and thank them for their consideration in serving the Societas. As I also said in a thread on the Curia, while I do not want any official duties, I will remain here to provide help when needed.

Valete bene,
Draco

[Aldus Marius]

Salvete, omnes Sodales...

It became apparent yesterday that I did not configure the polls properly. Yesterday, the 19th, was supposed to be the last day of voting; however, due to the misstep the polls closed out at midnight (US Central time) on the 18th, the night before. (In computing this gets called an "off-by-one"or "fencepost" error...)

One Sodalis that I know of tried to vote yesterday and ended up having to post his ballot as a reply to the poll topic. I won't ask anybody to do that; but if you tried to vote on the 19th and could not, but still wish to be heard from, please send me a PM or e-mail me directly: marius_peregrine -at- yahoo -dot- com .

(Mi Gnae, I think I'll take you up on that offer of auxilium now...)

[Aldus Marius]

Salvete, amici Romani!

(I am probably the only person in the SVR who is geeked-out enough to stick my head in here on Christmas Eve!)

With the receipt of the last write-in votes late Thursday, 20 Dec 07, the selection of our next SVR administration is complete.

It pleases me to announce the election of...
- Quintus Servilius Priscus;
- Marcus Octavius Gracchus; and
- Valerius Claudius Iohannes
...to the positions of Curatores for the Societas Via Romana, anno Urbis conditae 2761-2. Vobis gratulor, clarissimi viri; et profundas multibus gratias pro laborem vestrum!

May I also thank every Sodalis who participated. I know our politics is pretty low-key (especially in comparison to a few Other Places I can name! <g>), but you did turn out, and things could have gotten really awkward without you.

In amicitia et fide,