Welcome to the U2F2 Elections page
This is a centralized resource for all admin election related happenings and procedures.
Eligibility
What are the eligibility requirements for U2F2 adminship?
Qualifiers
In order to be considered, any potential community leader must…
- Be in good standing within the group. Members that have a Level 2 warning or higher recorded against them at the time of election are deemed as not being in good standing and thereby are not permitted to run for adminship. Members with a Level 1 warning will have votes detracted from their total count once election voting has closed.
- Must be members of all the associated U2F2 community groups (including the Utah Furs Meetups Telegram Group and the U2F2 Facebook Group). This is expected as these platforms are frequently used for the organization and planning of meets. Membership to these groups must have been established prior to the commencement of the September 2024 election process (September 1, 2024).
- Must have attended at least 12 U2F2-sanctioned events in the last 6 months (prior to September 1, 2024).
- Have been local residents of Utah for at least 12 months prior to the election period.
Community Leader Expectations
If a prospective community organizer cannot perform the following duties, they should not consider adminship or their candidacy may be rejected.
If you are nominating another member, please respect them by consulting on the following expectations before nominating them, as it is unfair to only assume their ability to meet the following:
- Community leaders must be able to attend most meets, and not just their own organized events. Leaders are not only responsible for organizing meets but also assisting in the organization of other members’ sanctioned meets. It’s expected that community organizers attend the majority of U2F2 events. This also means…
- You must have your own reliable form of transportation – A lot of driving is involved in organizing and attending/leading meets. You must be willing to put miles on your vehicle to achieve this at your own cost.
- You must have a proactive, self-starting attitude and willingness to jump in and start projects and ideas. You must be an excellent public speaker, able to make announcements to many members in person. You must also be outgoing and willing to approach and meet new members and welcome them to meets.
- You must be financially responsible for meets – Meets cost money. On average, community organizers spend between $300-1000 a year out of their own pocket to help book venues and run events. Sometimes, these finances are covered by attendance, but many times, they are not, so organizers should expect to be out of pocket.
- You must be a member or willing to become a member of ALL U2F2 community groups, including our Telegram Channels, Facebook pages and groups, and other social media platforms like Twitter/X.
- You may need to be legally responsible and willing to occasionally cooperate with law enforcement. When officially sanctioned U2F2 events are held, the community organizers may need to ensure the legality and safety of all members and attendees. It’s not uncommon that disputes may arise where community leaders are expected to provide testimony to legal or law enforcement institutions when the time arises. Note this does not apply to 3rd party events or events held on 3rd party private property. For a full list of what admins/leader are (and are not) responsible, see our community guidelines.
- You must be level-headed and able to avoid drama to mediate community disputes. Adminship is NOT a platform for people to gain power so they can control the community experience of others. In fact, any admin who cannot mediate disputes as a committee with the other members from a neutral position will likely be expelled from their position. Community disputes are handled by a committee of other admins who take time to investigate. Solo or rogue actions taken without the other leaders’ consent are unacceptable.
- In addition to all the above, community leaders must read and understand our complete list of community guidelines.
Note: Becoming a community leader/admin does not grant the member adminship of the Utah Furs General Chat telegram group. This is an entirely separate entity run and managed by a different group of admins.
Election Schedule
- September 1 – 7
Nominations; members will nominate the individuals that they feel would best serve as admin. - September 8 – 14
Opening Statements; nominees will introduce who they are, their qualifications/skills for the position, and what opportunities they hope to contribute to the group as admin; at this same time, the community will also be submitting questions to a Google Form that will be asked of the nominees. - September 8 – 14
Q&A Phase 1; questions submitted by the community will be presented to the nominees to answer. - September 15 – 21
Q&A Phase 2; Nominees answer questions submitted by the community. - September 22 – 28
Election Phase; the poll will be posted and the community will vote for a nominee.
- September 29
The votes will be tallied and the new admin will be announced; the new admin’s duties will commence on the 1st day of the following month.
The election process
What are the steps in the U2F2 admin election process
Current Election Process
Important Updates
We extend our sincere thanks to all nominators and nominees for their participation in this phase of the election process. The verification of nominees has now been completed. To qualify, nominees must have fulfilled the eligibility requirements, as clearly outlined in the announcement posts and the election information page (this page) prior to the start of the election process.
Accordingly, the eligibility of each nominated candidate has been validated based on the following criteria:
These eligibility requirements—recommended by our community—ensure that candidates demonstrate a strong connection to the community and a clear understanding of the responsibilities that come with adminship. This is why we continually encourage all community members to thoroughly review the rules and requirements before participating in the election, ensuring that each nominated candidate is well-prepared to meet these expectations.
Based on the validation chart above, the qualifying candidate for the September 2024 U2F2 Admin Elections is: Delta.
Meet your candidates
Meet the candidates and hear their opening statements.
Delta the Swampert
Hello! My name is Elliot, though you probably know me better as Delta the Swampert. I’ve been in the fandom for around 2 years at this point, and U2F2 has been a massive part of my time so far. I’ve made an effort to go to as many events as I can, which has given me a chance to meet a lot of amazing people. You’ve probably seen me around, whether it’s in or out of suit, at Fluff Party nights, bonfires, FurBowl, Dreamscapes, the Pride parade, and many other events. I want to do whatever I can to help everyone out, and I feel this opportunity is just what I need to give back to the amazing community U2F2 has built.
Throughout the past year, I have been active in helping out U2F2 in any way I can. I have regularly helped with event setup and cleanup, especially for Fluff and the bonfire meets. I have also helped out as a moderator in the Utah Furs Meetups Telegram group, as well as just helping others in any way I can. I am also currently working alongside Kayoran Nova on a big project that is still in the early stages of redesign. While I can’t give more information yet, it is a big revival project that will be revealed when we’re ready to share about it.
I also want to give the community more opportunities to help out. This community would be nothing without each and every one of you, and that should be properly reflected. I would love to help make it easier for those who want to help with both existing and new events to be able to do so, especially by letting the community know about any potential volunteer opportunities for events and giving additional organizing support to those who are hoping to run their own events but are unsure as to where to start. U2F2 would not be as successful as it has been without the help of so many people, and I want to make sure that continues to be true for many years to come.
I feel like I have strong qualifications for this role through past experiences. In college, I was the booking officer for an on-campus concert venue. In this role, I booked both local and touring artists for shows, including for multiple music festivals held on campus as well as coordinating logistics for shows and festivals. I also previously served as one of the owners of a community-run Rocket League esports league and production studio, serving as the casting director for the org. In this role I was in charge of all on-stream talent for all broadcasts of league competitions, as well as coordinating commentary teams for team streams for multiple professional teams as well as for the first-ever official community stream for the Sub-Saharan Africa region as part of the Rocket League Championship Series. I was able to build a team from the ground-up and elevated what started as a small and unknown community league to a position where professional-level opportunities became available for the talent. These experiences have taught me a lot about running events and building communities, and I would love to have the opportunity to put these skills to use to help nurture the wonderful furry community that has been built here in Utah.
This community has meant so much to me. I’ve met some of my closest friends, found a place I belong, and had so many amazing opportunities that have made a lasting impact on who I am. This community is something I am extremely passionate about and dedicated to, and I want to see it succeed and flourish. If given the opportunity to join the admin team, know that I will be a dedicated leader and community organizer. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Telegram at @Delta0010. I hope you will give me the chance to join the admin team.
Questions and Answers
Below you will find the questions and candidate answers. Candidates are displayed in the order in which their responses were received.
We invited all U2F2 members to submit questions for our qualifying nominees, and have condensed them down to the following 6 questions:
1. Being an admin is a lot of work and responsibility, and usually involves maintaining events, the website, online groups, and community relations. It can be exhausting after a while, but is important to keep going. What helps motivate you to keep going?
(Q by Anonymous)
A. I’m motivated by the community and knowing how much everything the admin team does for everyone in it really makes a difference. I’ve seen how much work the current admins put in, and I’ve also seen the amazing results of that work. I know there will be a lot of responsibility and pressure on me if I do become an admin, and I do not want to let any of it stop me from making the U2F2 community the best it can be.
2. We all know adminship for U2F2 is not a popularity contest, but what is something you want to be remembered for in your adminship term? What legacy do you hope to leave?
(Q by Anonymous)
A. I hope to leave a legacy of helping the community get more involved in helping out. This community would not be what it is without each and every person in it, and I want to make it easier for everyone to make as big of an impact as they want to.
3. Being an admin usually involves having many good qualities and skills, whether it’s being persuasive, organized, connected, etc. Every admin is better with some aspects than others. If you had to pick, what aspect of adminship would you do the best at? What is your strongest suit?
(Q by Pom Puma Dragon)
A. I’d say that my strongest suit is the organizational/logistical side of being an admin. When most people see the work that admins do, they see the more public-facing parts of the role such as coming up with ideas for events. However, there is a lot of work that needs to be done beforehand in order to have events be successful. I feel like I excel at these kinds of tasks and am skilled at making sure all of the details are in order and figuring out exactly what needs to be done ahead of time and how to best go about doing it.
4. Do you have ideas for any new events you might want to start or bring back for U2F2?
(Q by Anonymous)
A. I’d love to add mini golf/cosmic golf meets. I’d also like to make it easier for members of the community to come up with new events by creating resources to help with reaching out to potential meet locations.
5. Being an admin often means you’re faced with tricky social situations on and offline involving others who may have differing opinions than your own, or may even be a close personal friend. When faced with problematic high-stress scenarios, how well would you manage to remain calm and objective as you work to come up with a resolution that aligns with U2F2’s rules and guidelines? How would you handle a task like this if passing it to another admin was not an option?
(Q by JayeWysp)
A. For these kinds of scenarios and tasks, what matters most is focusing on the objectivity of the rules. While there is certainly room for admin discretion, the rules are luckily set up in a way that gives clear guidelines for what is and isn’t allowed as well as what kind of consequences there are if the rules are not followed. If a situation occurs where I am forced to make a decision by myself even when I may have a vested interest or preexisting opinion on those involved, I know I can rely on there being a certain level of rigidity in what is and isn’t allowed and focus more on what the community guidelines say to try my best at keeping my own personal feelings out of the decision.
6. What are some of your ideas regarding more volunteering opportunities? What do you have in mind, or how do you plan on creating/opening these opportunities?
(Q by Kayoran Nova)
A. There are two main types of volunteering opportunities I had in mind. The first is help with things like setup and cleanup for meets, which is currently mainly handled by just whoever is there at the time and wants to help out. I’d like to have information available more publicly about what kind of help is needed and when it is needed rather than having it be a situation where it’s only known if you ask the admins about it. The other thing I’d like to add is more opportunities for leadership and organizational opportunities outside of the three admin positions for things such as chat moderation, event organization, etc. It currently feels like the only existing opportunities for this are adminship or creating and running an event, which limits how much some people who may want to help out more are actually able to do.
Voting
Below you will find the the form in order to cast your vote.
Voting has now opened and will continue until Saturday, September 28th 11:59pm.
- Only local Utah members, and members of the groups (to include the U2F2 Meetups Telegram Chat/Group and the Facebook Group), who have already established membership before the commencement of the selection cycle, can vote. Any other votes will be dismissed.
Important: We will be validating each vote (information like the voter’s telegram handle will be required). Invalid votes or multiple votes from a single user will be rejected. Thankfully, Telegram provides us with all the tools to validate voting in this manner, and gaming the system in any way will not be tolerated and could result in the disqualification of the candidate.
Thank you in advance for your participation in this U2F2 election cycle!