Community Associations Institute (CAI) is an International not-for-profit members-based organization for community association management. Located in Sarasota, Florida, the CAI West Florida Chapter provides education, tools and resources promoting the highest standards among over 1000 managers, business partners, homeowners and board members for the benefit of all community associations in the Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto Counties.

The Challenge

Like most associations, the CAI West Florida Chapter is required by its bylaws to hold a yearly Board of Directors election to determine the chapter's board for the upcoming year, which traditionally has been executed through the use of paper ballots submitted by their members.

However, frustrated with the inefficiency of having the Nomination Committee members meet up to manually review candidate applications and count ballots and aware of the complexity and tediousness of completing and submitting paper ballots could be for members, the group wanted to find a way to make the process more seamless and efficient this time around.

Aware of the alternatives, the team decided they would implement an electronic voting platform to simplify and streamline the process of conducting their 2023 Board of Directors election.

And with their election around the corner, they began searching for a suitable electronic voting service provider.

The Solution

With so many different Electronic Voting providers, the team wanted to work with a reputable and capable service provider that could make their upcoming election a breeze. That's when Scott Gilbert, Executive Director of CAI West Florida, decided to reach out to Chapter member Frank Valdes from GetQuorum.

Intrigued by what he heard about the solution during previous interactions with Frank, Scott and the Nomination Committee decided to reach out and learn more about GetQuorum's Electronic Voting solution. And after conducting their initial conversation and solution walkthrough with GetQuorum, the group was impressed by what they saw.

In terms of technology, GetQuorum's Electronic Voting system provided a secure, user-friendly platform to distribute, cast, and collect electronic ballots and Candidate Nominations. Members could securely and conveniently cast their ballots through the GetQuorum Voting system, ultimately eliminating the need to send and return ballots via mail, only to hopefully get them returned to the office before the deadline to be counted. And while pleased with the platform's capabilities and ease of use, what truly stood out to the Nomination Committee team was the level of support provided with GetQuorum's full-service approach.

From their initial encounter, the GetQuorum team was professional and responsive, demonstrating the level of communication and customer support the Candidate Nomination committee was looking for in an electronic voting service provider. Their full-service approach meant that once the team provided their pre-meeting materials and member registry, the GetQuorum team and platform would handle everything from distributing meeting notices to distributing, collecting, and tabulating electronic ballots.

So, with a suitable platform to execute the election, paired with support from the GetQuorum team, the CAI West Florida Nomination Committee was ready for their upcoming Board of Director Election.

The Result

Simply put, the chapter's Board of Directors election was a success.

The processes were straightforward, the user-friendly platform was intuitive, and the level of administrative support provided through GetQuorum's full-service approach made the process of executing the chapter's Board of Directors election effortless for all parties.

The GetQuorum platform streamlined the process of distributing, casting and collecting ballots and Candidate Nominations while eliminating the need to gather together in person to manually tabulate paper ballots, making the process much more efficient. Members appreciated the improved convenience and simplicity of submitting their ballots electronically through GetQuorum's platform, resulting in a significant uptick in participation.

"Frank Valdes and his team at GetQuorum made our Chapter's experience with electronic voting perfect the first time around," said Scott Gilbert, Executive Director, CAI West Florida. "We really enjoyed the help, professionalism and guidance from GetQuorum as we transitioned our Chapter's process of hosting our yearly Board of Director's election and hope to continue this relationship moving forward."

The association recommends GetQuorum to anyone who asks about our experience or is looking for an electronic voting provider and plans to use our platform for the foreseeable future.  

If you want to learn more about our Electronic Voting solution or any of our other full-service solutions for your next governance meeting or election, click here.