To all District A-711 Lions:

The District Cabinet and Convention Committees has voted to postpone our District A-711 Convention due concerns about Coronavirus (Covid-19). Voting for next year’s District Officers, including the Governor, Vice District Governors, Region and Zone Chairs as well as any accepting our amended District Constitution and Bylaws must still happen; no less than 30 days before the original date of the International Convention.

A cabinet sub-Committee was created to look into options for our elections. After evaluating a wide number of possible methods, keeping in mind the advice of the LCI Legal Counsel, which asks that we ensure that there be no cause for complaint after the fact. The committee unanimously decided to go with a third-party online voting system. Several companies’ solutions were considered and electionrunner.com was chosen. This decision was made with the health and safety of our Lions in mind.

Given this selection, we will be deferring announcement of election results from the original postponed Convention date of April 19 to May 2, 2020. If the result of the first vote does not produce a 2^ndVDG winner, then a run-off vote will be held starting the next day and our new 2ndVDG will be announced on May 6, 2020. The revised timeline is visually depicted in “Appendix A: Final Timeline for District A-711 Voting”.

The actual online voting process, a summary of the security of our approach and a detailed timeline are attached to this email as “Appendix B: Online Voting Process and Detailed Timeline”.

We have appended a brief overview of aspects of the selection process undertaken by the committee for the online voting system as “Appendix C - A711 election tool decision”.

The Club Delegate form and the PDG Credentialing form have been updated for this election. Please ensure that these forms are completed and submitted by clubs and PDG’s with all required information and email those forms to elections@a711lions.org before April 19, 2020 to ensure you can vote. Questions about this election should also be sent to elections@a711lions.org.

We will be providing access to a frequently asked questions to assist with your use of this voting process and to show you how easy it will be to vote before voting is to begin.

I hope you will all familiarize yourselves with this process.

We are optimistic that with each new day there is hope, and as Lions we will continue to find new ways to put our kindness in action while safely serving our communities.

HAVE A GREAT DAY BEING A LION!!!!

Lion Donald Bissonnette
Elections Chair District A-711
elections@a711lions.org