Apropos of nothing ...

Why does the Alumni Association ask us to go through this farce of voting in an "election" every year?

(For those not on the emails, they pre-select 8 candidates for 8 open seats, so your vote makes no difference whatsoever. I think that's how Stalin ran his elections).

Most likely some kind of organizational bylaws?

No doubt. I was thinking of the bigger “why” — “why is it set up that way?”

I asked them about it the first year that they did it. Their answer was that "it is the way that all the big non-profit groups are doing it now". Sounds like when Chairman Mao answered "because that is how Stalin does it".

Next year, I’m nominating Blow Gym Rat as a ninth candidate just to see the mayhem that will certainly follow.

In reality, if someone else wanted to run, I am sure they could but nobody else puts their hat in the ring I assume. This at least gives the ability of others to run if they want to do so. Not those 8 people's fault if nobody else tries.

Here is the nomination form - https://wmalumni.com/about-us/board-of-d.../index.php