REPORT OF THE FIRST ALUMNI MANAGER ELECTION - 24th January 2015
BACKGROUND
Recognition of Alumni Association
On 28th October, 2014, Incorporated Management Committee (IMC) of St. Louis School has officially recognized St. Louis Old Boys’ Association Limited as the Recognized Alumni Association under the Section 40AP(1) of Education Ordinance (Cap 279). Under this recognition, St. Louis Old Boys’ Association Limited (SLOBA) has accepted the mission to organize the 1st Alumni Manager Election for the purpose of electing the Alumni Manager of the IMC of St. Louis School. All past pupil of St. Louis School who are registered as a voter before the start of the nomination period are eligible to participate in the election.
ELECTION PROJECT
To fulfil the legitimacy of carrying out this election, an Extraordinary General Meeting was held on Friday, 19th September 2014 at 8pm at St. Louis School, for the passing of the resolution of the Insertion of a new Article 66, which was specifically written for the mechanism of this Alumni Manager Election. During a Board meeting of SLOBA held after this EGM, Peter Ko, director, has been appointed as the Returning Officer to take full charge of the 1st Alumni Manager Election.
Preliminary announcement of the election was posted to SLOBA website (SLOBA.org) on early November 2014. Official Notice of Election & relevant timetable were issued on November 28, 2014: i. Through mailing and emails to SLOBA membership database ii. Uploaded to SLOBA.org iii. Advertisements placed with Ming Po(明報) on 4th December, 2014 and Kung Kau Po (公教報) on 7th December, 2014.
Schedule of Election:-
12th December, 2014 Start of Candidate’s Nomination
5th January, 2015 End of Nomination
9th January, 2015 Official announcement of eligible candidates standing for election
24th January, 2015 Polling at St. Louis School from 2:00 – 8:00 pm.
CANDIDATES FOR ELECTION
At the close of nomination, two nominations have been received. They were Mr. Pak Yiu Charn Patrick白耀燦 (1969) and Kwok Man Chun Manson 郭文浚 (2004). After further verification, their eligibility as candidates for the election was confirmed and announced by returning officer on 9th January, 2015.
POLLING DAY 24th January, 2015
The Election working subcommittee, made up of Peter Ko, Returning Officer, Tom Chan, SLOBA Director & Thomas Leung, SLOBA Director reported to the venue before noon and supervised the settings of the polling room. Together with the professional advice and hands-on assistance from Dominic Leung, SLOBA Director and Mandy Lee, coordinator from St. Louis School, the preparation work was carried out smoothly and effectively. To ascertain the smooth workflow of voters’ registration, 4 notebook computers were used to verify the voters’ status against the SLOBA membership/registered voters’ database. 8 helpers from current students and graduates of St. Louis School were recruited as volunteers who did a great job to ensure the efficient operation of the day.
Before, 1:00pm, it was so amazingly to see hundreds of St. Louis old boys had arrived the basketball field outside the polling room eagerly waiting for the historic moment. Dr. Lawrence Wun, SLOBA President of 1984-86 was the first one queuing outside the polling room as he said he wanted to be the one casting the first vote of the day. His wish did come true.
At. 2:00 pm. To start the polling, Fr. Simon Lam. Supervisor of St. Louis School and Spiritual Adviser of SLOBA conducted a prayer session to pray to God for His Blessing for the great day and special blessing to the two candidates, Mr. Pak Yiu CHarn and Mr. Kwok Man Chun.
At about 2:05 pm, official polling started. At the start, the long queue had almost reached the Food Kiosk. With the volunteer helpers who acted as ‘marshals’, the flow of voters was monitored smoothly, peacefully and effectively. For the whole afternoon, it was so touching to see many old boys, even after casted their votes, still staying at locations around the basketball field for social dialogues. It appeared that nothing could separate St. Louis boys for long. The huge number of old boys surpassed all the previous ‘Home-coming’ events. It was estimated about 500+ old boys came back to our Alma Mater on this Election day. Almost 100 old boys stayed until the end at around 9:00 pm. During the voters’ registration, it was discovered that many old boys could not vote due to not yet a member of SLOBA and a registered voter; Many of them immediately completed the SLOBA membership application forms and submitted to our SLOBA directors instantly. Upon approval of their membership in due course, they will be allowed to vote in all future functions including the next Alumni Manager Election in 2016.
Due to the unexpected small size of the ballot box (provided by St. Louis School), it was completely full at about 1.5 hours from commencement of polling. As the second way out to solve this problem, we invited the two candidates twice to witness the ‘open- box’ procedure and the transferring of all the ballot papers from ballot box into 2 cartoon boxes. The two boxes, after duly sealed and signed by the two candidates and returning officer were kept in safe custody of returning officer until day end of counting of votes.
COUNTING OF VOTES
At 8:00 pm sharp, the polling was concluded. The setting of the polling room was transformed into the Votes Counting venue. A total of 432 votes were received. The counting of votes was carried out immediately. Five individuals were invited to witness the counting of votes and they were:
1. Fr. Simon Lam - Supervisor - St. Louis School,
Spiritual Advisor - St. Louis Old Boys’ Association
2. Dr. Yip Wai Ming - Principal – St. Louis School
3. Mr. Francis Lo - President – St. Louis Old Boys’ Association
4. Mr. Pak Yiu Charn Patrick - Candidate of Alumni Manager Election 2015
5. Mr. Kwok Man Chun Manson - Candidate of Alumni Manager Election 2015
Other past pupils (about 100) were also invited to witness the critical moment. Counting of votes was started at 8:10 pm by returning officer and completed at 8:40 pm with immediate re-verification by helpers and finally confirmed to be in order at 9:00 pm.
RESULT OF ELECTION
Returning officer announced the result of the election:- Mr. Pak Yiu Charn Patrick白耀燦 (1969) won the election by obtained 337 votes against Mr. Kwok Man Chun Manson 郭文浚 (2004) who scored 91. Only 4 invalid votes were detected.
Mr. Pak gave a 5 minutes address to the audience to express his feeling of winning and thank his supporters.
FINALE
With the valuable help from many volunteer assistants and the true St. Louis spirit of hundreds of old boys, the historic 1st Alumni Manager Election day was of great success and peacefully adjourned upon the closing prayers of Fr. Simon Lam.
Long Live our Alma Mater!