Slate of Hand

In an article (“Slate of Hand”) bringing to light the way in which “sneaky” methods have been used by those at the top of the Actors’ Benevolent Fund to entrench their power and to avoid accountability to members, Private Eye has pointed out that “the only apparent precedent [for a charity introducing a single-tick option to automatically approve all recommended candidates] is this year’s AGM of the National Trust, which saw off the Restore Trust pressure group by making it far easier for members to cast a “one-click” vote for a slate proposed by the NT’s nominations committee than to vote for individual candidates.”

‘Quick Vote’ was the new voting option introduced, without any formal consultation of members, by the National Trust’s leadership this year whereby the first option that comes up on the ballot forms is a single tick box to approve all the National Trust's recommendations on Council candidates and members’ resolutions. Members were therefore nudged to tick this box rather than to read all the statements critically before making up their minds for themselves.