How do I create an election period?

1. Navigate to the ‘Configuration’ tab within the Elections module
2. Within the ‘Results’ section, select ‘Periods’

1. Click the green ‘Create Period’ button in the top right

2. In the new pane that opens, enter the following information into the relevant fields:

   1. Name – This should be a unique identifier for your period – it will be the name you look for during the election creation process (e.g. Committee Elections 23/24)

   2. Type –This will be the types of elections that will be calculated within this period. There are three options to choose from:

      1. Standard – used for Sabbatical Officer elections, and any other elections that don’t require a dynamic setup
      2. Dynamic (Academic) – used for Rep elections
      3. Dynamic (Committee) – used for Activity/Student Group committee elections
         
         Please Note: Only one type of election can be calculated within a period.
         
         

   3. Automatically Withdraw Candidates – enabling this option will withdraw a candidate from any remaining elections within the period if they have won an election that has already been calculated within that period
      (e.g. within a Committee election period, a candidate has been elected into the position of President for an Activity/Student Group, and so is withdrawn from 2 other positions that they nominated themselves for)
      
      

   4. Automatically Adjust Positions – enabling this option will adjust the number of positions of an election to prevent a failed calculation
      (e.g. if an election has 4 positions but only 2 candidates, the election will decrease the number of positions until the result is calculated successfully. In this scenario, this would result in only 2 positions)
      
      
   5. Send Winner and Loser Emails – These fields specify whether an alert should be sent to a candidate if they’re successful or unsuccessful in the election (sent either to their organisational or preferred email address). You can select whether you wish to ‘Send Winner Email’ and ‘Send Loser Email’:
      1. Email Content – This is the email that will be sent to the candidates in question. You can use tags to customise these emails which will be replaced with information specific to that member. The current supported tags are:
         1. {{candidateName}} – this will be replaced with the candidate’s name
         2. {{electionName}} – this will be replaced with the name of the election
   6. Elect into Role – If selected, candidates will be populated into their role automatically after calculation. The relevant role depends on the election type:
      1. Dynamic (Committee) elections – successful candidates will be populated into the position set against the election they have won
      2. Dynamic (Academic) elections – select from the ‘Position’ dropdown which role you wish them to be added to (this dropdown is populated with the Rep Roles created within the ‘Representation’ module)
      3. Enter the start and end dates for their term within the position.

Once created, you will have the option to ‘Remove’ and ‘Modify’ your election periods up until the calculation is completed.

You can now start assigning your elections to the relevant periods for calculation – see here for further guidance!

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Created on 25th January 2024