THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



NOMINATIONS AT CONVENTIONS. 



An Informal Ballot most Likeby to Express 

 the true Wishes of the Meeting. 



Ever since I can remember, the Na- 

 tional Association of Bee-Keepers lias 

 elected its oflficers by first placing one 

 or more nominees in the field, and 

 then balloting to decide which nom- 

 inee should have the office. At Den- 

 ver, when this part of the program 

 was reached, the Westerners objected. 

 They were not accustomed to that 

 style of making nominations. After 

 the convention was over, Mr. F. L. 

 Thompson wrote an article on the sub- 

 ject, which was published in the Rocky 

 Mountain Bee Journal. The American 

 Bee Journal copies the following para- 

 graph : 



"Mr. President, I nominate So-and- 

 So for president," (or secretary or 

 treasurer, as the case may be). No 

 other nominations. "Mr. President, 1 

 move the secretary be Instructed to 

 cast the ballot of the association for 

 So-and-So as president." Seconded 

 and carried. So-and-So is then sup- 

 posed to be the choice of the associa- 

 tion. 



"Perhaps he is; and perhaps he 

 isn't" 



Commenting upon the above, the 

 American Bee Journal says: 



"This seems to result in electing 

 usually the first man named, whether 

 the best man for the place or not. In- 

 stead of this we should have the very 

 best man available for the place, and 

 there should be full opportunity to 

 have each member suggest the man 

 he thinks thus fitted. As to the moans 

 of accomplishing this, Mr. Thompson 

 Bays: 



" 'There is only one way to do this, 

 namely, by taking an informal ballot 



before the decisive one, and doing 

 away with verbal nominations alto- 

 gether. The informal ballot is the 

 best kind of nomination, because it is 

 a nomination by everybody who has 

 ideas of what he wants. Verbal nom- 

 inations are made only by a few, who 

 may not come near covering the field. 

 After an informal ballot every one 

 knows clearly what to choose between; 

 after a verbal nomination he is often 

 not conscious of much more than the 

 temporary and adventitious promin- 

 ence of those actually named. One 

 may very readily, for the time being, 

 even forget the existence of as effi- 

 cient workers (or even more efficient 

 ones) as those who happened to be 

 named.' 



"Entirely right, Mr. Thompson. The 

 moment a name is mentioned on the 

 floor of the convention, that moment 

 the personal elements enters, and any 

 one making a second nomination is 

 likely to be considered more or less 

 as antagonizing both the previous nom- 

 inee and the man who nominated him. 

 With the informal ballot all this is 

 avoided. Then the formal ballot wbich 

 follows is made mtelligently. 



"It may be objected that balloting 

 takes time. If there is to be a very 

 short session, there may be some 

 M'eight in this. But with one or more 

 sessions of consi>^erabe duration, a 

 good presiding officer will expedite 

 matters so as to save a good deal more 

 time than that lost in balloting. At 

 any rate, if wo want the best of any- 

 thing, we must be willing to pay some- 

 thing for it. 



"Bee-keepers, perhaps, are not less 

 informed on this subject than are 

 other people. But, really, it was 

 laughable to see how the election of 

 officers was conducted at the Denver 

 convention. We think it was the most 

 poorly managed of anything we ever 

 saw in that line. For Instance, nom- 

 inations of candidates was allowed 



