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Fair Representation?


J. Williams
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Fair Representation?

 

I'm trying to come up with a way to equitably establish a number of advisory/board positions for a new association. Would establishing two positions per Region outlined as follows work? If not, any suggestions?

 

Region One (total population 95,015,624)

 

Arizona

Colorado

Idaho

Montana

New Mexico

Utah

Wyoming

California

Nevada

Oregon

Washington

Hawaii

 

includes Canada

 

Region Two (total population 89,935,877)

 

North Dakota

Alabama

Alaska

Arkansas

Illinois

Iowa

Kansas

Louisiana

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Nebraska

Oklahoma

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Wisconsin

Indiana

 

Region Three (total population 132,853,393)

 

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Kentucky

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New York

North Carolina

Ohio

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

Vermont

Virginia

West Virginia

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"Fair" depends on what the association is doing.

 

When drawing boundaries for districts that send representatives to state and federal legislatures, the courts have held that districts should be within a "community of interest" to pass muster. That way you can't draw boundaries that divide strongholds of one party or the other other to make them a minority voice in other districts.

 

The red flag I see is that someone in New Brunswick, Canada, might feel that she has more in common with someone in Maine than Hawaii, for instance.

 

If this is a doggy association, I think you'll find that the way you've carved up the Midwest and East might also be a little bit problematic as well.

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I definitely share more interests with people in Tennessee than those hoity-toity northerners in Massachusetts. :rolleyes:

 

Seriously, I agree that it depends on what the mission of the org is.

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The association being formed will, among other things, track competitive results for its membership, in three basic divisions, at any/all trials they attend, regardless of venue (location, site or setting); format (course); competition type (judged, point or time); or, sanctioning.

 

I carved the regions by starting with the four US time zones, researching respective population numbers for each state within each time zone, totaling those numbers, then doing my best to even up the regions (population wise) by merging two time zones and moving split time zones to the region with a lesser population.

 

I was left with concerns though... and now have more (which I appreciate). I am totally open to suggestions re: establishment of regions. Any ideas out there that I could try to work through in the alternative?

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I've taken the e-mails received re: "region identification" (thanks to voiced opinions) and tried to reorganize using an idea proposed elsewhere. While it would be great to arrive at complete satisfaction, I'm guessing that won't be possible, but dang close counts. I will fine tune more based on feedback.

 

References used:

 

Stats - http://www.geohive.com/cd/link.php?xml=us&xsl=xs4

 

Map - http://www.worldtimezone.com/time-usa2.htm

 

Region One (total population 47,497,220)

 

Alaska

Canada

Colorado

Idaho

Montana

Oregon

Washington

Wyoming

 

Region Two (total population 48,162,190)

 

Arizona

California

Hawaii

Nevada

New Mexico

Utah

 

Region Three (total population 43,670,180)

 

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Minnesota

Missouri

Nebraska

North Dakota

South Dakota

Wisconsin

 

Region Four (total population 45,621,911)

 

Alabama

Arkansas

Louisiana

Mississippi

Oklahoma

Tennessee

Texas

 

Region Five (total population 67,108,477)

 

Connecticut

Maine

Massachusetts

Michigan

New Hampshire

New York

Ohio

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

Vermont

 

Region Six (total population 66,315,814)

 

Delaware

District of Columbia

Florida

Georgia

Kentucky

Maryland

New Jersey

North Carolina

South Carolina

Virginia

West Virginia

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  • 3 weeks later...

Speaking as a Canadian... I am curious as to why we are listed as just Canada... we have many provinces (akin to your states) each with their own unique cultural/regional/geographical perspectives.... why not assign provinces to the regions you have created, why lump such an enormous country in one single region? Just seems alittle odd.

Sara

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It seems that you are trying to divide the regions fairly by population (people) but maybe it should be dog population.

 

If one region has 80% of the dogs, they would not be fairly represented.

 

Penny's suggestion about somehow utilizing the number of trials per region sounds like it is a format that should be researched.

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Yes, cattle trial results.

 

I have received a good number of notes suggesting representation based on the number of cattle trials and/or population of cattle dog handlers (rather than general population, which I agree is not the best answer).

 

However, I'm unsure how to go about establishing those areas and relative numbers without a verifiable baseline that includes all cattle dog trialing venues (at least all those that don't exclude particpation based on registration, listing or breed requirements).

 

Originally posted by PennyT:

What is the new organization for? For example, if it is going to track cattle trial results then fair representation might be based on how many such trials there are in various regions.

 

Anyway, I am curious about which results from what kinds of events are in question.

 

Penny

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Well, the more I work on this the more I'd like to find a better way of doing it... but, at the time I was working strictly with population numbers, trying to make them as even as possible, and what I learned amazed me (although it's probably common knowledge to everyone else):

 

Canada total sq. km: 9,976,140

Canada total population: 32,207,113

 

US total sq. km: 9,372,587

US total population: 288,368,698

 

So Canada, while a tad bigger than the US, has a popluation equal to about 8.95% of the US, which made it impossible to break down any further and maintain relative representation based on population numbers.

 

(The Canadian area/population numbers, by the way, have prompted nightly dreams of relocation :rolleyes: )

 

Originally posted by kaos:

Speaking as a Canadian... I am curious as to why we are listed as just Canada... we have many provinces (akin to your states) each with their own unique cultural/regional/geographical perspectives.... why not assign provinces to the regions you have created, why lump such an enormous country in one single region? Just seems alittle odd.

Sara

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