Q:
What? When? Where?
A:
Here's what's happening:
- Nomination dinner (free food) on Friday, February 22nd, 7:30pm, Hulsizer room: come nominate your friends or yourself to run for AHEC
- Speech night (free food) on Thursday, February 28th, 9pm, Hulsizer room: come listen to the nominees' candidacy speeches
- Election day (free candy) on Sunday, March 3rd, 8am-8pm, Ashdown Lobby: come vote for your favorite candidates
Q:
What do you AHEC guys and gals even do?
A:
AHEC is the Ashdown House Executive Committee. We oversee officers, represent Ashdown to the administration, plan events, serve as a forum for student concerns and try to make Ashdown a better place. Our official officer entry page (which contains a more detailed description of the individual duties) can be found
here.
Q:
Why would I want to be on AHEC?
A:
It's a good way to meet people and get involved with your house. You will also learn a lot about MIT and effective leadership in the process, making being on AHEC a worthwhile experience.
Q:
Yeah, yeah, but are there any perks?
A:
Why yes there are. AHEC members are allowed to come to all the Housemaster dinners for life, not just their floors' dinners. Also, AHEC members receive their year's officer seniority points immediately after election, giving them an obscene advantage in the housing lottery, though this becomes nullified at the end of the term because AHEC members do not earn more points than our most active officers. Service on AHEC counts for one year of officership towards the two years needed to get continuing status via the officer route. If you are Chair, you get your name on that nice plaque by the mailboxes for generations of Ashdowners to gaze upon with wonder.
Q:
Are there official rules for these elections? Where can I find them?
A:
The Ashdown House Constitution, which contains the official election rules, can
be found at:
http://ashdown.mit.edu/docs/constitution.pdf. They are further clarified
and expanded upon here:
http://ashdown.mit.edu/policies/election-policy.pdf.
Q:
Who can be nominated?
A:
Any current graduate resident of Ashdown House who plans to continue to attend MIT for the coming school year as a graduate student. If you do not have a continuing status in Ashdown, you will receive a one-year officer assignment, so you will be guaranteed to stay in your room if you wish for the next year.
Q:
Do nominees have to be at the dinner?
A:
No. They just have to be Ashdown graduate students. Just think, they got the nomination and you got a free dinner. How sweet is that?
Q:
Who can nominate someone?
A:
Any Ashdown resident who attends the nominations dinner.
Q:
How do I nominate someone?
A:
When the nominations are open after the dinner, simply shout his/her name or username. If you have someone in mind, but want to check on spelling or such, you can look them up
in our resident directory.
The AHEC Internal Affairs Coordinator, who coordinates the elections, will bring a resident list for reference.
Q:
Have you heard of l'esprit de l'escalier? I just thought of the perfect nominee, but the dinner just ended. Now what?
A:
Happens to me all the time. Email ahec-internalaffairs (at) mit.edu within 24 hours of the dinner.
Q:
Is there a limit to the number of people I can nominate?
A:
Well, there are only so many beds in Ashdown... But you can certainly nominate more than one person. Choose people who you think would be able to responsibly serve the community you live in.
Q:
Gosh, I got nominated but I was also thinking of being the X officer. Whatever shall I do? I'm torn between the two positions.
A:
Run for AHEC! Officer applications will open after the AHEC elections. If
your bid is unsucessful, you can apply to be an officer then.
Q:
I got nominated, but I don't think I can do this. While I'm flattered and would love to take a more active role in my house, I'm afraid it would be irresponsible of me, given the current demands of my academic program. How can I back out?
A:
Twenty-four hours after the nomination dinner, you may decline your nomination by sending an email to ahec-internalaffairs (at) mit.edu after 7:00 pm on the day following the nominations. But we want you to think about it for a day, okay? You could make a great contribution to AHEC and your house government.
Q:
What if I decline earlier than 24 hours before the dinner?
A:
Your email will be ignored. It is Ashdown Tradition that no one can decline a nomination on dinner night (bad form, you see). Because you have not officially declined, you will receive a reminder about speech night and elections over the following week along with the current candidate list. You may decline at that point, as the 24-hour window will be up.
Q:
I'm so mad! I wanted to get nominated and run for AHEC, but somehow my name was missed. I was too modest to nominate myself, even though that's allowed. Can I still run somehow?
A:
Sure. Per the
Ashdown House Constitution, a petition of 10 residents submitted two days before the election will get your name on the ballot. However, speech night will be six days before election day, so you may want to file your petition in time for speech night.
Q:
Speech Night? (eep)
A:
Yep. The Thursday following nominations, candidates will give speeches and answer questions from residents during Coffee Hour. This is a good opportunity to promote your candidacy. Special food will be served (yum)! You do not have to be an AHEC candidate or have attended the nominations dinner to come and listen to the speeches.
Q:
How do I campaign? Must I?
A:
You can make posters and advertise yourself if you like, but it's not required. Posters do help get your name out there to people who didn't see you at Speech Night, so doing so is HIGHLY recommended.
Q:
How does the voting work?
A:
Intrepid current and former AHEC members will be manning a booth on election day
outside the building and residents may vote there. You will be allowed to vote
for up to five AHEC candidates. The five candidates with the most votes will
be on AHEC.
Q:
There are five or fewer people on my ballot! Why are we even voting?
A:
As you may choose up to five candidates, you may choose not to vote for everyone. The number of votes each candidate receives will determine how the Chair is chosen.
Q:
Say, I see that there are different AHEC officer positions, such as Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, Operations Officer and Officer Coordinator. How is it decided who gets what job?
A:
The candidate who receives the most votes is offered the chair position. If he or she declines the position, the chair is offered to the person with the next highest votes (and so on). The remaining positions are assigned by the other AHEC members themselves at their first meeting.
Q:
When do the AHEC officer terms begin?
A:
On the May 1st of the current year. Outgoing officers will assist with the
transition in the time before their term ends and next AHEC's begins.
Q:
How much time does it take to be on AHEC?
A:
It depends on the time of the year, your position and what's going on in the MIT world. Things are currently peaceful: past AHECs spent a great deal of time lobbying the admins because of problems with the transition to NW35. Now that we're here, most of those problems are long gone. AHEC takes up a lot more time when officer positions are assigned (April, September), or a big event is coming up (orientation). There are usually lots of emails going about that take time to answer thoughtfully. The regular committment is our Thursday meetings, 7:30-9:00.
AHEC members are regular students (just like you) and we do manage to have lives outside of AHEC as well.
Q:
Is there a difference between being on AHEC and being an Ashdown officer?
A:
Technically, AHEC members are Ashdown officers. AHEC members are elected by the
house while all the other positions are chosen through application (which are
then read by AHEC). Officers take care of specific duties.
Q:
This FAQ is crap. You didn't answer my question. Where can I ask something you didn't answer?
A:
Email ahec-internalaffairs (at) mit.edu. We will update this site with the answer.
Good luck (and please seriously consider running for AHEC)!
