Originally posted by Laney:
A nominating committee was not utilized! That would have been fine with me however there were several people who completed their own nomination forms and submitted them. These people were never contacted to explain the positions or give the other info needed for election night. The President at large decided that since no one knew these people we could delete their name from the ballot!

This is a very good example as to why a nominations committee is important but also policies and procedures for them to follow. It's a shame really. You may have gotten some terrific leaders from these new people. At the very least, you would have encouraged future involvment from them. I'd bet they aren't too happy about your group right now. Even more so, a good percentage will just not be involved anymore because of it... Sad...

How funny is this? We had a parent or two complaining that our last election was "illegal" as we did not utilize a nominating committee. We actually saw no reason to as no one but current Officers were interested. The elections were next school year were just held. Guess what? A nominating committee was not utilized! That would have been fine with me however there were several people who completed their own nomination forms and submitted them. These people were never contacted to explain the positions or give the other info needed for election night. The President at large decided that since no one knew these people we could delete their name from the ballot! I am really upset about all of this. One because these people use the By Laws when it suits them and 2. How can you turn away a volunteer because you dont know them? Heck if you had contacted them you could get to know them but I think they wanted to make certain they got the positions they wanted without any competition. The new Pres decided to wait until the last minute to nominate herself- I think it was because she has lost 4 other times and felt this time she had a chance.
Anyway- thanks for letting me get this off my chest. LOL

I forgot one more thing, when you announce to members that you are looking for nominees, explain the process. LEt them know that the committee will choose one person but it is encouraged for others to run from the floor. Not all bylaws have this part but they should- anyone running from the floor lets the President know 30 days prior to the election so that all candidates know who is running (no surprises) and who they are running against. I'd encourage clean campaigning too. Then the members will get to know these people better instead of just voting for names.

It depends on how your bylaws are written. Think of it this way- the Democratic party has five people interested in being the Democratic nominee. We all know that one person is chosen from each party yet there were 4, 5 people vying for the nomination.
That's the same thing here. The job of the nominating committee is to look at each person who shows interest and decide who would be the best candidate, based on their experience on the board. I have a few personal examples. I recently chaired our school nominations committee. One office had two people interested. Myself and the committee interviewed each candidate and asked them what they could do in that position. We also asked for experience (including in the real world) and we also gathered opinions from people who knew them. We then chose one candidate that we felt would be a good choice. Members might not and probably won't get a lot of detail about the person wanting to run and sometimes may not even know who they are at all.
On the State board, people submit a letter of interest and we fill out an application. As a board member already, I wanted to stay on but move up. I did that and they were supposed to interview me, my references and the same for others who were interested (they didn't do that but they were supposed to) Anyway, water under the bridge, I still have a lot of work to do so per our bylaws, I announced my intention to run to the current President and then per our bylaws, campaigned (she did too btw). I was nominated from the floor at the convention and I ran against the person chosen by the nominations committee but she too was aware that I would be running. By the way, I won.

Basically the job of the nominations committee, done correctly is to work together to find the best candidate, in their opinion. It is the job of the rest of the membership to know that nominations can be made from the floor. It is the job of any nominee to share their own qualifications by campaigning. Think back to student government. It's all the same.


I hope I explained that correctly.

If I understand your other issue- three schools, three VP positions. Did they put forth one candidate for each seat or just one candidate period? The nominations committee finds one person for each position. I wouldn't get rid of the nominations committee but rather define what they are supposed to do more clearly in policies (interview interested people, get info etc) but again, your members may not know who these candidates are, you may not know who these candidates are. One of them could be the type to volunteer for everything but never follows through or maybe they're a person that alienates others and they are supposed to work on building membership! The nominating committee is important in that they are supposed to find these things out.

Our by-laws state that the nominating committee is to choose an eligible person to fill each office. We, too, had confusion on this matter. It was said that say 10 people wanted to run for pres. that it was the committee's job to present all names on a ballot and let the members decide. While I don't disagree with that, the nominating committee simply did its job as stated in the by-laws. We also accept nominations from the floor. There may need to be some changes in the wording.

We had this same problem last year. I thought the nominating committee was supposed to look for and present people that are interested and let the general members decide. That is not the case. According to Robert's Rules the committee chooses who they want. Usually here they ask the people already serving first. The treasurer said she would do it again and when they presented their slate her name was not mentioned. It caused a lot of confusion. There can be nominations taken off the floor, but I think a nominating committee is intimadating. Many people will not go against the committee and just let things stand.