Voting

So here's the idea.

Dr Tone sends out a proforma email like this:

Voting form for PN wb 10 Sept 2009
Mon               : -
Tue               :
Wed               :
Thu               :

AE - Adam and Eve :
RA - Railway      :
OH - The Swarm    :
OL - Overton Lodge:
OP - Old Plough   :

Suggestion        :

You then fill in your choices by date ('X' means "can't make", '-' means "prefer not" [note default '-' for Monday]) and 1-5 in preference for the pub. A '!' means "please remove this pub from your list of choices as I never want to go there at all".

Dr T then does the choice of date calculation (2 votes for a blank, one for a dash). He then does a pub choice calculation by:

• converting 1-5 into 2,1,0,-1,-2 points
• changing the sign on the votes of people who can't make it
• summing the scores for each pub
• the highest scoring pub is chosen and emailed out. Dr Tone "tosses a coin" if there is a tie.

note how a vote for a pub on a day you can make is automatically a vote against a pub on a day you can, and vice versa.

The "suggestion" field adds another pub to the candidates and gives it two points. This is unlikely to be chosen unless several people write in the same pub (but can be used for just this purpose).

There is an ordered list of pubs which is created once and for all from all the pubs we've actually previously visited at PN with the oldest at the top of the list.

Chosen pubs go back on the bottom of the list as do suggestions which go in at position 10. Each week's offerings are 5 picked at random from the top 10. So if this week the Plough gets picked it goes at the bottom of the list, and the other 4 are put in a bag with 6 others to get suggested next week.

Once a pub gets two '!'s from different people it is removed from the list and so never appears again unless suggested.

And here's an example of a completed form:

Voting form for PN wb 10 Sept 2009
Mon               : -
Tue               : X
Wed               :
Thu               :

AE - Adam and Eve : 2
RA - Railway      : 3
OH - The Swarm    : !
OL - Overton Lodge: 4
OP - Old Plough   : 1

Suggestion        : 19

In this case I can make Wednesday or Thursday next week (and will accept Monday if needs be). I want to walk the least distance from Prestbury. I was badly stung last time I visited The Swarm and don't want to go there again. We never go to 1992 anymore and I want to show off my new red braces {}.