MSERA OPERATIONS MANUAL: Committees

Nominations Committee

Purpose

     The Nominations Committee has the responsibility to select candidates for the positions as Officers and Directors for the Board of MSERA. The selection process should be unbiased and fair, following the procedures outlined below.

Selection

     The committee shall be composed of equal representation from each of the constituent states.

Responsibilities

     The committee prepares a slate of nominees for Officers and Directors to be elected at the Annual Meeting of the Association. The Nominations Committee announces the nominations for all positions, directs the preparation of ballots, and conducts the election.

Nomination Process

  1. The President of MSERA appoints the MSERA Past President to serve as chair and two committee members from each of the MSERA states (January).
  2. The chair sends a letter to each committee member requesting nominees for each of the offices and Directors' positions being filled dolling the coming year. The nominee for President is the current Vice President/President-Elect and automatically succeeds to that position without balloting. A1l other positions should have at least two candidates submitted by each committee member on the initial list of nominees sent to the chair.
  3. Beginning in 1992, the Secretary-Treasurer and all Directors are elected for two-year terms of office. The Vice President/President-Elect serves one year in that position before automatically advancing to the office of President. Officers to be elected in even years are the Vice President/President-Elect, Secretary-Treasurer, and Directors representing each of the six member states. Officers to be elected in odd years are the Vice President/President-Elect, Directors At Large (4), and Directors representing State Departments of Education and Local Education Agencies, and graduate students.  

    The Researcher will also solicit nominees from the general membership based on guidelines set forth in the MSERA Constitution and Bylaws. Nominations for any position may be made to the committee by any active member of the Association, provided that the member secures (1) the written permission of the nominee and (2) the signatures of four other active members endorsing the nomination. The committee shall establish and announce a deadline for receiving nominations. The committee chair shall publicize the procedure and deadlines in the February issue of the Researcher.
  4. The chair will compile all nominees for each Officer's and Director's position and submit this list to the Nominations Committee members to rank order candidates.
  5. Committee members will return their rankings to the chair.
  6. The chair computes the average ranking for all candidates and identities the top two persons for each position to be filled (the top eight candidates for the four at large positions).  

    If one or more members of the Nominating Committee does not rank all candidates for an office, the Hare system, as suggested by AERA for use in its divisional elections (January 1990) can be used. It is as follows: "This system is designed to stimulate a situation in which a new election is held after the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated''; in the case of rankings, the individual with the poorest rank total. Presumably the voters whose first choice was eliminated would now vote for their second choice. (Or, their second choice would then become their first choice.) The procedure successively eliminates candidates until only the permissible number of candidates for the specific office remains. With a large number of candidates, it is definitely preferable for all committee members to rank all candidates. This is also less likely to happen when the number of candidates is large because there are more likely to be candidates with whom some of the committee members are not familiar.  

    The chair verifies the membership status of all individuals on the original list of potential candidates with the Secretary-Treasurer. Individuals must be members of MSERA (their dues must be paid) to be selected as candidates.  

    The final ballot is then determined by contacting all top candidates to gain their approval to be nominated for the specified positions on the ballot Candidates receiving the nomination for more than one position will be given a choice about the position desired. If a person declines the nomination, then the next person in the rank order is contacted until the ballot is complete.
  7. The President of MSERA is notified about the slate of candidates to be voted on by the membership. The chair officially notifies the nominees that they are candidates for specified positions as either an Officer or a Director of MSERA. Nominees are asked to submit information and a black/white picture on behalf of their candidacy to the chair. The chair compiles the bios and pictures of each person and sends this information to the editor of the MSERA Researcher.
  8. Prior to the Annual Meeting, the chair prepares a ballot or ballots for the election to be held at the Business Meeting of the Annual Meeting. In the years when state representatives to the Board are elected (even-numbered years), the ballot (or separate ballots for each state) must be designed so that only members from a state vote to elect the representative for their state.
  9. At the Business Meeting, the chair and members of the committee distribute the ballots. The chair presents the slate of candidates at the Business Meeting. The chair and the members of the Nominations Committee collect the ballots, tabulate them, and report the results to the President of MSERA during the Business Meeting.
  10. The President of MSERA announces the results of the election to the membership at the conclusion of the Business Meeting.
  11. After the election, the chair sends to the President a tabulation of the results.