I have been having conversations with fellow board members recently on the role of abstentions. There are two points of view on when to use abstentions.
One point of view is that they should only be used in cases of conflict of interest. The other point of view is that there are many times when an absention is ok beyond the mandatory conflict of interest abstentions. I will present the arguments of both sides as well as I can here and then I will say which point of view I prefer.
The first view is that abstentions should only be used in conflict of interest situations. The reasoning is that we are on the board to represent the students. We are obliged to vote on an issue one way or another for students. It is a cop out if we don't make a choice one way or another. Comparisons can be made to the parliament where they have to vote one way or another. If we don't make a vote on an issue, we are not fulfilling our duties as a director.
The other view is that there are a variety of situations in which an abstention can and should be used. The two most common situations when abstentions are used are as follows. The first is when you are torn by two sides of an argument. You are in favour of it in some aspects, but other parts of it dont' sit well with you. You don't really want to support it, but you also don't really want it to fail. People who say one should always have to vote would say this is a political cop out and that you should make a vote one way or another.
The other situation is if you don't really know enough or don't care one way or another about an issue. You feel it's not your place to sway the issue one way or the other. The always vote proponents would say that these are poor excuses for not voting. It is our responsiblility to care about all the issues on the students' behalf and to be well researched enough to make those votes, otherwise we are not doing our duty as directors.
I have abstained for both of the above reasons, more the former than the latter. I have felt that I don't want to sway the vote one way or another so I want the rest of the votes to sort out what was going to happen. However, if I feel a vote is going to be close and my vote will be important one way or another, I am much more hesitant to abstain from the voting. I can think of only one time where I chose to abstain on a close issue. In that case, it was a very grey area kind of vote and I was completely unsure as to which way I should vote, so I just didn't. In most cases however, if a person's vote (or non-vote) is likely to sway a decision on way or another, I am opposed to abstaining.
So what does everyone else think? Did I miss anything? Why should a director be able to abstain or not?
Rob McDonald
