Vote! MassLandlords Annual Elections Open December 2 through 16

The Board Needs a new Director

MassLandlords, Inc. is a 501(c)6 nonprofit trade association. This year temporary director Russell Sabadosa, whose seat expires in September 2017, is seeking election to a full five-year term. Write-in’s are allowed. There are no other ballot initiatives.

Unlike a 501(c)3, whose directors may be neither customers nor familiar with the work, we are governed by those of us with direct experience carrying out our mission. Our mission is to improve the quality of rental housing in Massachusetts:

We help owners rent their property. We also advocate for better laws.

This mission is carried out by the Executive Director and their team. The Executive Director reports to the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors report to the membership. Members who pay dues directly to MassLandlords are eligible to vote for directors and to stand for election themselves.
This year you can vote online or at one of three physical locations in Massachusetts. Online voting will run from Friday December 2 through Friday December 16 (or until quorum is achieved) at masslandlords.net/governance/2016-elections. In-person voting will take place in Waltham on Wednesday December 7, Longmeadow on Thursday December 8 and in Worcester on Wednesday December 14 at regularly scheduled meetings (see masslandlords.net/events for addresses and times). All members in good standing as of Tuesday, November 22 are required to vote.

We Have Strict Term Limits

Our five directors serve five year terms. Each year we must elect a new director to the Board of Directors. In 2016 we say farewell to director Jane Gasek, whose term expires at midnight on December 31. Under our version of term limits, Jane may not run for re-election in this year, although she may run again in 2017. This leaves one seat open for election.

Our other directors are Mike O’Rourke (through 2017), Yvonne DiBenedetto (2018), Joyce Nierodzinski (2019), Pietro Curini (2020) and Russell Sabadosa, whose sixth seat was created by special member resolution and lasts until September 14, 2017. Russell was given his temporary seat to help the Springfield group become a part of MassLandlords. He is now seeking election so that he has another five years to serve. If he wins, his temporary seat will be dissolved and we will return to the normal five directors.

All members with membership level “Digital”, “WPOA”, “RHAGS” or “Charles River” are eligible to vote. Members with membership level “MWPOA”, “SWCLA”, or “SPOA” have paid dues to a different legal entity. SWCLA, MWPOA, and SPOA members receive all MassLandlords benefits by contract with their local group, but are not voting members for the purpose of elections.

MassLandlords is a Testbed for Democracy

The US election in November was foreordained to leave half the country unhappy. This was largely the result of our election system, which requires voters to express all their complex feelings about a candidate in a single bubble: “which candidate do you want?” This is not the best way to vote. It tends to result in strategic voting. For the first time in our history, more people may have voted against the opposition than in favor of their candidate.

MassLandlords is democratically governed, and we have tended to use “pick one” voting in the past. But we want to do better. We experimented once with instant-run off voting, which was complicated and opaque. Starting this December, we will use “range voting,” which allows us to rate each candidate or question on a scale of 0 “strongly dislike” to 5 “strongly approve.” Range voting provides an approval signal even in uncontested races. In multi-candidate races, range voting does not penalize third parties. It encourages honest rather than strategic voting. It is also the method most likely to result in an outcome approved by most everyone (“I didn’t expect that candidate to win, but I’m fine with them!”). The candidate with the most points wins.

Experience the future of democracy and help us to serve our 20,000 member rentals by voting now at MassLandlords.net/governance/2016-elections.