24:2 (2009:05) Committee Annual Report: N&E

June 1, 2009 at 12:00 pm | Posted in Nominations & Elections | Leave a comment

NOMINATIONS AND ELECTIONS COMMITTEE

Kathy Brannon, chair (Coutts Library Services), 08/09, Tim Hagan, co-chair (Northwestern University), 08/09, June Garner, co-chair (Mississippi State University), 08/10

Members: Norene Allen (Swets Information Services), 08/10, Joe Badics (Eastern Michigan University), 08/10, Sarah Gardner (University of California, Davis), 08/09, Betty Landesman (National Institutes of Health), 08/10, Susan Markley (Villanova University), 08/09, Alison Roth (YBP Library Services), 08/10
Board liaison: Char Simser (Kansas State University)

2008/2009 ACTIVITIES THAT SUPPORT THE NASIG STRATEGIC PLAN

NOMINATIONS AND ELECTION PROCESS
A call for the 2009/2010 nominations went out to active NASIG members on September 16, 2008.  Nominations were taken for vice president/president-elect, secretary, treasurer and 3 positions for member-at-large. All nominations were due by October 12, 2008.  

N&E Committee was given the approval by the board to have nominees send in a resume or vita rather than requiring them to fill in information onto the nomination profile form.  This new process required the revision of several documents before soliciting for nominations.  The intent of this change was to make the process easier for the nominee.

In November the N&E Committee reviewed resumes, vitas and position statements and held a conference call in December to discuss qualifications.  The committee then checked references for the final selections.

In January of 2009 the slate was set and sent on to the board as a courtesy per N&E procedures.  The committee chairs began working with ECC to ensure the ballot for online voting would be in place and ready.

On February 3, 2009, the slate was announced to the general membership and a call for petition candidates went out.  One petition candidate was received who met the requirements and their name was added to the final slate.

BALLOTING
Voting began on February 18, 2009, and ended on March 20, 2009.  There were a few problems with voting, as noted below, but the majority were resolved very quickly:

• E-mail blasts ending up in spam.
• E-mail not received by members (resolved)
• Problems with the e-mail links to vote not working.
• Online form not allowing you to start the voting process, save it, and go back to finish later.

ELECTION RESULTS
On April 1, 2009, an announcement went out to the NASIG membership with the following nomination results:

Vice President/President-Elect
Katy Ginanni

Secretary
Carol Ann Borchert

Treasurer
Lisa S. Blackwell

Members-at-Large
Patrick Carr
Christine M. Stamison
Steve Kelley

ANY CHANGES OR EXCEPTIONS TO BUDGET
Budget cost for the N&E Committee dropped considerably with the implementation of online voting and the Web accounts established for document sharing.  The only costs the committee now incurs are two to three conference calls during the year.

STATISTICAL INFORMATION
140 nominations for 102 individuals were submitted, (this included nominations solicited by the N&E Committee to broaden the pool for the three executive officer positions with some individuals receiving multiple nominations and some nominated for more than one position.)

• 34 nominations for 26 individuals  – vice president/president-elect
• 17 nominations for 14 individuals – secretary
• 16 nominations for 12 individuals – treasurer
• 73 nominations for 50 individuals – member-at-large

24 candidates accepted the review process and submitted their documents by the deadline.  The final slate consisted of:

• 4 slated for VP/PE
• 2 slated for secretary
• 3 slated for treasurer
• 6 slated for 3 position for member-at-large

A total of 329 members voted out of 817, representing 40% of the active members.

ACTION(S) REQUIRED BY BOARD
The 2008/2009 Nominations & Elections Committee began with two charges from the board:

The first charge was “to develop nominations criteria for member-at-large in an open election system that does not involve extensive committee vetting.  Allowing any willing member meeting set criteria to be on the primary ballot or a general election.  Need to develop process for run-off elections and thresholds required to make it to a general election.”  Tim Hagan (N&E co-chair) led this discussion with the committee and wrote a final report which was submitted to the NASIG Board.
After reviewing N&E’s report, the Executive Board felt that pursuing an open primary was not in the best interest of the membership, especially in light of the number of members voting and the added burden for those voting members to review 70-100 candidate packages. N&E’s task is not a simple one, and the committee members do a careful review of nominees’ application packages before presenting a final slate to the membership. With a petition process in place, there is opportunity for every NASIG member to pursue election to the organization’s Executive Board.

ACTION
Some steps have been taken towards more simplified and transparent elections.   Among these are:

• Online voting
• Fuller and clearer reports to the board and Newsletter
• All forms – both internal and external – used by N&E are on the Web (see:  http://www.nasig.org/about_elections_process.cfm ).
• The nomination profile form has been revised (only resume or CV required now and position statement length is increased to 500 words.
• The petition process is active and working (especially as we have lately seen with petition candidates both running and winning elections).
• A Google Docs account setup to make sharing of all documents between committee members secure and easy to access.
• Establishing a wiki for the N&E Committee manual.

The Nominations & Elections Committee would like to further refine the election process for more transparency and welcome comments and ideas from the membership.  Redefining the manner, number and types of references required is one area the committee would like to explore next.

The second charge was to review the nomination and election procedures currently in place and to make recommendations on how the system could be improved.  Since the election is fresh in our minds, the N&E Committee (led by June Garner, N&E co-chair) initiated a discussion on the NASIG forum with the existing nomination and election procedures and suggesting one possible revision centering on the notion of an open election.  That is, everyone nominated for an office would be on the ballot.  The committee would ensure that each nominee is a NASIG member in good standing and that his or her nominee profile packet is complete.

It is the intent of the committee to have this discussion continue at the annual conference in Asheville.

QUESTIONS FOR BOARD

• Some candidates were interested in knowing the number of votes they had received.  Committee members were divided on this but could find nothing which indicated we should not supply this information.  Should this information be given out?  Should this information be posted?

RECOMMENDATIONS TO BOARD

• Ensure appointed co-chairs are eligible to serve as chairs the following year.
• Ballot needs to clearly state that you cannot exit the ballot and return – the voting process must be completed.
• Further online resources should be pursued to make the nomination process easier.
• All forms should be reviewed for revision to ensure the process is clear and simple.

In closing, the chair would like to thank the N&E co-chairs and committee members for all their time and hard work throughout the year.  The extra time spent soliciting nominations for the Executive Board positions and coming up with such a wonderful slate was extraordinary.  A special thank you goes to Char Simser, our board liaison, for all her advice and input during this past year.  Getting used to the new NASIG website and developing other innovative ways to communicate and share documents has been a challenge for us all.  The support from ECC has been outstanding throughout this process so the chair would also like to thank the ECC.   The chair and the committee would also like to thank Gail Julian (past co-chair) for providing support whenever needed.

Kathy Brannon, chair N&E Committee