Title: DRFC Elections

General Information about Item:

• Customary Folklore
  • Ritural/Tradition
• English
• USA

Informant Data:

• Max Parker is a 21 year old Senior male at Dartmouth College studying economics and computer science.  Max is from Menlo Park California.  He has played rugby for four years.

Contextual Data:

• The DRFC is not only a rugby team, but also a club like any other on campus.  As such, aside from the traditional athletic leadership position of team captain, there are a litany of other positions that senior members of the DRFC might fill: among them, President, Treasurer, Social Chair, and more.

Item:

• The process by which these positions are delegated is referred to as ‘elections,’ and it takes place at the end of each Spring term.  In order of descending importance, starting with team captain, rising seniors of the DRFC are nominated for positions by their peers in a large, open assembly. Nominees step out of the room, so that their teammates can deliberate and discuss freely as to whether or not the nominee in question deserves/is fit for the position in question.  Eventually, a consensus is reached on every position, and the DRFC has its rising senior leadership set for the year to come.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript of Associated File:

Max Gomez: O.K. Another thing, its also come to my attention that you are the President of the club, is this true?

Max Parker: Yeah.

MG: What was the process for that? How did you become elected to sort of lead the club in this way?

MP: We had elections in the spring, and how elections work is if you are a rising junior (misspoken: rising senior), the positions go in order of Captain, Co-Captain, President, and anyone who seems fit to hold a position is nominated by someone else on the team, at which point they leave the room, and the people in the room debate who will be a better fit and tehn eventually take a vote and then the winner of the vote gets the position and  is brought downstairs and is informed.  Afer my friends Hayden and Dawit were elected captain and co-captain, I was up for the President vote and got the most votes.

MG: Very interesting. All right, thank you for your time.

Informant’s Comments:

• N/A

Collector’s Comments:

• N/A

Collector’s Name: Max Gomez (Interviewer)

Liam Morris (Author of Entry)

Tags/Keywords:

• Rugby
• DRFC
• Elections