Head Student Vote on Cascade Hall

Selina Skies

December 01, 2022 4:48 AM

Head Student Vote by Selina Skies

The fifth and sixth years had been notified of the upcoming head student elections, so it should have been no surprise when they were reminded to stay after dinner one Thursday. After checking that she had everyone she was supposed to, and no one that she wasn’t supposed to, Deputy Headmistress Skies stood to speak to them.

“Good evening. Thank you for staying behind to vote on the head students for next year. You will shortly receive a ballot with the candidates the staff have shortlisted.” This was a slight variation from some recent years, where the yeargroups had been small enough to include more or less everyone, unless someone did something that warranted them actively being excluded (which had actually happened in several recent years, varying from actively not wishing to be on the ballot to… being Jeremy Mordue). This year, none of their candidates was terrible enough to warrant exclusion, but given the number of people in the yeargroup, they’d had to do a little more to be worthy of inclusion.

“You may vote for two students of any gender, but should consider the attributes that make a good leader, not just who your friends are.” The recent challenges had hammered home rather bluntly the fact that these characteristics weren’t always easy to recognise - although the challenges required a different sort of leadership to being head student. “Once you have voted, you may go about your evening.”

With that, she waved her wand, delivering a ballot paper to each student.

OOC: The ballot can be found here

Subthreads:

Doing things properly by Bertie Jackson

Not to much to decide by Valentine Duell

13 Selina Skies Head Student Vote 26 1 5

Bertie Jackson

December 01, 2022 4:59 AM

Doing things properly by Bertie Jackson

There was no real proof of anything in the small, shiny pieces of metal that Sonora gave out. Neither he nor Mara had been made prefect, and whilst he was loathe to get invested in his sister and her melodrama, from what he understood, the girl who had beaten her out to one of the head student badges was all kinds of awful.

So, it didn’t precisely matter.

Still, he was pleased to see his own name on the shortlist, and was surprised that his roommate’s wasn’t. He wasn’t sure what Quincy had done to offend the powers-that-were, but that meant that Bertie had actual choices to make… There was a relatively obvious choice in his mind, except that most of what he knew of Philippe did come from gaming, which was social, and not how responsible people voted. He hesitated for a moment, considering Graham as generally unobjectionable. He rechecked the girls’ names as, having been raised by a number of strong women, he couldn’t ignore the possibilities of cognitive biases, and the wish to be egalitarian. But no, they truly were all awful. As for Graham being ‘generally unobjectionable’ that was because he was quiet. Whilst that was a desirable state much of the time, it could be a poisoned chalice if they were to gain co-stewardship of some sort of leadership role.

Philippe, on the other hand, would be good at doing all the feelingsy and peopley things, whilst Bertie could be organised and rational (though, judging from where Theo’s team with Philippe as second had placed, Philippe was capable of being all those things himself - as well as incredibly patient). Still, Bertie wasn’t about to not vote for himself, and he thought his and Philippe’s skills were complimentary, and they had a proven track record of being able to work well together, which made it more than just voting for his friend.

13 Bertie Jackson Doing things properly 1497 0 5

Valentine Duell

December 01, 2022 5:48 PM

Not to much to decide by Valentine Duell

Valentine listened to Professor Skies intently. From the sounds of things, not all of the sixth years had made it onto the list? While she did have to admit that perhaps some of them wouldn't make ideal head students, she was relatively certain that none of them would make actively poor choices. The thought crossed her mind very briefly that there was a chance that she might not be on the list, but it didn't really matter. While she readily admitted to herself that it would be really nice to have enough of her classmates think she could do the job, and have completed mirroring Mama's accomplishments, she certainly wasn't going to make a fuss if she didn't get the badge. That would be a ridiculous thing to do. Whoever got it would do an excellent job and as a prefect she'd help them out, cheer them on, and support them however she could.

The deputy-headmistress' suggestion to consider leadership qualities instead of friends struck her as a little odd, but then she did have to admit that perhaps some of the other students here didn't see some of the other students as friends. It was an odd thought. Whoever was on the list, Val certainly considered them a friend and thus that wouldn't really affect her choices. Plus, she had pretty much already made up her mind as to who she was going to vote for.

Once she had received her ballot, Valentine looked over it. Quincy, Stanley, Aelia and Janis were missing. The omissions made her a little sad, but the two that she had planned on voting for had made it onto the list. Her first selection was for Lavender. She would make a good head girl, Valentine was sure of that. The second selection had taken her a little bit longer to decided upon. She certainly wasn't going to tell anyone, but she couldn't vote for Bonabelle. The job of head student had a lot of people interaction, and while her girlfriend had come a long way on that front, she did not think that Bonabelle would enjoy the job. Plus Bonabelle was a girl as was Lavender, and for some reason Valentine still liked the idea of a 'Head Girl' and 'Head Boy' instead of just 'Head Students', despite all of the gender conformity norms that went with it. There was some little voice in her mind that whispered that she was betraying Ness' ideals, but they were Ness' ideals, not her own.

She had picked out a boy who, as far as she was concerned was the best around the school at handling 'more difficult students' for the times when it might be necessary. She knew he was the best at this because he had the most experience, having grown up next to one. Val selected Wally and turned in her ballot.

2 Valentine Duell Not to much to decide 1490 0 5