Board of Director Candidates Jennie Choi, Atilla Agoston and Craig Rot

I’m a huge fan of podcasts for a number of reasons.  One of those reasons is that since I started loading them onto my MP3 player is that I now can totally avoid listening to the seemingly never ending radio commercials while I’m driving.  Another is the wide variety of content.  I listen to a lot of sports related podcasts, but I also like the news and some offbeat shows that think outside of the box.  One of my favorites in the latter category is the Freakonomics podcast.  Last year during election season they looked at voting and the bitter reality that the odds of your one vote mattering in a major election as incredibly remote.  Here’s the podcast and an earlier  article in the NY Times covering the topic.

The basic gist is that with so many people voting in most elections the odds that any election will be freakishly close are extremely slim.  And reflecting back on all the times I’ve voted on something in my lifetime, the only time my one individual vote ever came really close to mattering was the 2004 USA Team Handball Board of Directors elections vote where Mike Hurdle edged Bob Djokovich by a small margin of votes.  (I think around 400 members voted with Hurdle winning by like 3 or 5 votes, but my memory is sketchy.)

This time around the Board of Directors election is much less contentious, but the possibility of a close vote remains.  If you care about Team Handball in the United States and who will be making the key decisions like how much funding should be allocated towards National Team and how much should go toward youth programs and other grass roots efforts this is your chance to make your voice heard.

And, if you’re having trouble making up your mind check out my 30 minute interviews with each of the candidates.  There are no smoking guns in the interviews, but they’ll certainly give you some insight as to what their priorities are and perhaps most importantly give you an idea as to how they would serve and function as a member of the Board of Directors.

Jennie Choi:  Link
Atilla Agoston:  Link
Craig Rot:  Link

As a final note, keep in mind that these 3 candidates are vying for 2 seats on the Board and that voters are required to rank the candidates in order of preference.  The candidate you select as your #1 choice will get 3 points; the candidate you select as your #2 choice will get 2 points; and your #3 choice will get 1 vote.  And the 2 candidates with the most points will be selected to serve.  So while you personally may have a clear #1 choice it could be that your decision between #2 and #3 could be the real difference maker.

For more information on how to cast your ballot check the Federation website:  Link