Board ballot creation and distribution

Setting up the electronic ballot requires a number of different steps. The following accordion panels explain how to do each of the required steps. It is recommended that you complete the steps in the order shown. You will repeate the steps  for each ballot nominee.

Electronic voting is initiated by emailing the Google Forms ballot link (URL) to those members who have an active email address in the database. This following material explains how to update the email template that is used to send out the ballot announcement.

1. Update ballot email notice template
   
   1. Log onto Wild Apricot and get into "Admin view" If you don't see a gray menu bar on the left side of the screen click on the gray "house" button at the left side of the horizontal gray menu.
   2. Click on "Communication" and then on "Email templates" in the gray menu bar.
   3. Click on "Board Ballot No Pictures" template and then on "Edit template."
   4. Update the following:
      1. the ballot year
      2. the five candidate names
      3. the ballot return date, and
      4. the name of the Nominating Committee chair, which will be the Immediate Past President.
   5. If this is all you need to do, click on "Save" in the upper right side of the gray menu bar.
   6. You can update the template right up to the time it needs to be sent.

Electronic voting uses a Google Form to collect ballots. This form needs to be updated each year with the new candidates and the new Form URL. The following material is divided into three major parts:  Preparing the candidates' bio/picture image, Updating the Google Form, and Determining the Form's URL.

Preparing a candidate's bio/picture image

Each candidate has their own bio/picture image and so this process is repeated for each candidate.

1. Open the paper ballot you created for the paper ballot process.
2. Copy one row of the headshot / bio from the table on the second page of the ballot to your clip board.
3. Open a blank page in Word and paste the copied row into the document.
4. Edit your one row two column table as follows:
   1. format the bio text to be Arial 11 with line spacing of 1.25
   2. size the picture to be a bit smaller than the cell.
   3. format the table to have a single line border.
   4. if the bio contains red highlighting for unrecognized words, assuming the words are correctly spelled, tell Word to ignore. You want to have a nice black and white image.
5. The easiest way to create the needed image is to use screen capture software to take a snippet of the table and save it as a .jpg or .png file. Microsoft Windows 10/11 has a screen capture software package called “Snipping Tool” built in which works just fine to create the graphic file. Microsoft Windows 10/11 has a screen capture software package called “Snipping Tool” built in which works just fine to create the graphic file. Note:  you will want to hide any formatting symbols, e.g., end of paragraph before making the image. You can either turn them off temporarily or use Print Preview to snip from.

Updating the Google ballot

If you are not familiar with Google Forms, there is help on the Create a survey/evaluation page of the Help for Volunteers website. While you could create the form new each year, the easier way is to update the form from the previous year and instructions for doing this follow.

1. Log onto Google.com using the ASURA account.  You will need to send an email to the ASURA email account to obtain access to the ASURA Google account (if you don't already have it).
2. Click on the hamburger (9 dots) in the upper right corner and scroll down until you find Forms. Click on Forms. You should now see a page of old Forms, mostly seminar evaluation Forms. Find the previous year's ballot and open it. 
3. Click on the 3 dot hamburger in the upper right just to the right of the "Send" button and select "Make a copy" and then click on the blue "Make a copy" button. Change the Form title (upper left side) to have the correct new year.
4. Remove the old candidates. Each candidate is a multiple choice question. At the bottom of each question is a garbage can. Click on the can to remove the question.
5. You can edit the voting instructions to reflect the new ballot due date. Feel free to modify the instructions.
6. To add a candidate
   1. To add a candidate click on the "+" (add a question) button and select Multiple choice
   2. Insert the candidate's name for the question.
   3. Click on the image icon located between the candidate's name and the type of question pull-down menu box. Do not use the image icon in the vertical menue. In the pop-up window click on browse and go to the candidate's image you created earlier and click on Open. If all goes as planned you will now see the headshot/bio image just below the candidates name.
   4. Add "Yes" for the first option, "No" for the second option, and "Abstain" for the third option.
   5. At the bottom of the question window click on "Required"
7. Repeat step 6 until all the candidates have been added.

Determing the Form's URL

You will need the Form's URL when you send the ballot notice e-mail (see "Distribute ballots" accordion below). To see the URL:

1. Click on the "Send" button in the upper right corner.
2. Click on the Link icon.
3. Check the box next to "Shorten URL" to get a shorter URL to use in the notice.
4. Copy and save the URL.

1. Log onto the ASURA website
2. Update the Volunteer Bios with the photos and writeups for the new candidates (see "Add Edit Volunteer Bios" for information on how to do this)

1. Log onto the ASURA website
2. Click on "Content" and then enter "ballot" in the Title box and hit carriage return or click on the Filter button.
3. Click on the "board of directors ballot" file. This will bring you to the Board election page. It will be pink becuase is has not been published.
4. Click on "Layout" and you will see a number of blocks. The top block is the hero. Below that is a section with two columns, each with a Text Content block. Below this is a single block with the candidate election year. Finally at the bottom is a two column section, each section contains a Card Arrangement block; the left block has one card, the right block has four cards.
5. For help on editing any of these blocks see "Edit basic page"
6. Edits for the "Vote Electronically box
   1. Update the gold Vote button with the Google Form ballot address. Note, this is a button with a link and not a link; thus, you must edit the button to update the link address.
   2. If the naming conventions for the paper ballots is as suggested, there will be no need to update the "download the ballot" link but this link should be checked to make sure it is correct.
7. Update the Candidate election year block to have the correct year of the election.
8. Open the left Card Arrangement block for editing
9. Click on "Cards" to open up the cards and then:
   1. Click on the "Remove" button located just above the image and then click on "Add media"
   2. Click on "image" and then change the Directory to "Volunteer Bio Photos". Click on the maroon "Apply filters" button. This brings up a gallery of photos which should include the photos you used in doing step 2 above.
   3. Highlight the picture you want and click on "Insert selected"
   4. Enter the candidates name (first last) in the Heading box.
   5. Replace the three lines of text in the Body box with the correct information for the new candidate.
   6. Scroll down a bit until you see "CTA" with a URL box below. In the URL box start typing the name of the candidate. As you type a list of possible names appear. Select the candidate's name and hit Enter. Select "Maroon" in the Style box.
   7. Scroll down until you see a blue "Update" button, click the button and then click the maroon "Save layout"
10. Click on “Layout” and then repeat the previous process (steps 8 and 9) for the right hand Card Arrangement. When this block is opened and you have clicked on “Cards” , as you scroll up and down you will see you have four cards, each identical to the one you have just updated. You need to update each of the cards. It is prudent to do the updating one card at a time (do step 9.g after each card update).