On-line Parent Governor Election

[steveg]

We need to elect a new parent Governor, and having gone paperless for all of our communications the head is keen to do this electronically.

 

We have explored the possibilities of having a dedicated email account for parents to email their vote to, but concluded that we could not make this secure enough.

 

I have had a look on-line, and there are a few companies that offer it, but are fairly expensive for this - some were over £700 - we have around 1100 parents that will be eligible to vote.

 

The current paper system does have a cost, both in admin time and printing + envelopes so it is something that we would pay for, just not that much!

 

Has anyone else ever done this before? Our local Governor services say it is an acceptable way to do it, as long as it is secure and meets all the rules of a normal parent governor election, but do not offer a specific solution.

 

Thanks

 

Steve

[FN-GM]

You could setup a basic wordpress site with a voting plugin. Then add all your users via email. They will then receive links to reset the password and enter the site.

[TechMonkey]

Limesurvey on a Linux hosts published to the outside world. We have done Christmas Party dinner options, Team Photo ordering, bog standard questionnaires, even book ordering systems though it. You can make it anonymous, single use and it has an email link option so Parents get validated by a link you sen out.

[elsiegee40]

We need to elect a new parent Governor, and having gone paperless for all of our communications the head is keen to do this electronically.

 

We have explored the possibilities of having a dedicated email account for parents to email their vote to, but concluded that we could not make this secure enough.

 

I have had a look on-line, and there are a few companies that offer it, but are fairly expensive for this - some were over £700 - we have around 1100 parents that will be eligible to vote.

 

The current paper system does have a cost, both in admin time and printing + envelopes so it is something that we would pay for, just not that much!

 

Has anyone else ever done this before? Our local Governor services say it is an acceptable way to do it, as long as it is secure and meets all the rules of a normal parent governor election, but do not offer a specific solution.

 

Thanks

 

Steve

 

Jaw drops that you have more than one candidate!

 

The last time we had more candidates than vacancies was 6 years ago and this seems to be the same in most schools! Parent Governors invariably seem to be "elected unopposed"

[steveg]

Thanks, I'll have a look into both of those options.

 

Steve

[steveg]

Jaw drops that you have more than one candidate!

 

The last time we had more candidates than vacancies was 6 years ago and this seems to be the same in most schools! Parent Governors invariably seem to be "elected unopposed"

 

It was all looking very simple up until about an hour before the deadline, when we got 2 more apply! Great that parents are showing an interest, just more work for us!

 

Steve

[elsiegee40]

It was all looking very simple up until about an hour before the deadline, when we got 2 more apply! Great that parents are showing an interest, just more work for us!

 

Steve

 

Uh oh! Sounds like trouble is brewing... who has a grudge at the moment?