Nominating Committee Process

[Guest Karen]

The Nominating process ask that members self nominate.  That is, if a member is interested in serving in an Elected office, then a self nomination form should be submitted to the Nominating Committee.  A qualified member submitted the only self nominating form for a specific elected office before the prescribed deadline set by the Nominating Committee.  After the deadline, another member submitted their self nomination form for the same elected office.  It is understood that the Nominating Committee’s duty is to find the best qualified nominee(s) for each elected office.  Is it proper for the Nominating Committee to contact the first member and encourage and/or inquire if that person is flexible to consider serving in another elected office that currently has no self nominees?  

[J. J.]

5 minutes ago, Guest Karen said:

The Nominating process ask that members self nominate.  That is, if a member is interested in serving in an Elected office, then a self nomination form should be submitted to the Nominating Committee.  A qualified member submitted the only self nominating form for a specific elected office before the prescribed deadline set by the Nominating Committee.  After the deadline, another member submitted their self nomination form for the same elected office.  It is understood that the Nominating Committee’s duty is to find the best qualified nominee(s) for each elected office.  Is it proper for the Nominating Committee to contact the first member and encourage and/or inquire if that person is flexible to consider serving in another elected office that currently has no self nominees?  

How the committee would wish to handle this, is really up to the committee, unless your rules say otherwise.  They may ignore the timely self-nomination, ignore the non-timely one, talk to the people about taking a different office or even ignore both self nominations. 

 

 

[Guest Karen]

On 2/21/2019 at 11:13 PM, J. J. said:

How the committee would wish to handle this, is really up to the committee, unless your rules say otherwise.  They may ignore the timely self-nomination, ignore the non-timely one, talk to the people about taking a different office or even ignore both self nominations. 

 

 

Members self nominate and often run unopposed for offices and prefer to do so.  It is understood that nominations will be taken from the floor.   Members depend on the nominating committee to do the work of positioning those members willing to serve in the best candidate position that might get them elected for office.  After the nomination application deadline, the nominating committee contacted two self nominees to the same office A and asked if either person is willing to have their name moved to another of two vacant offices B or C on the nominating slate.   One person agreed to move to office B and therefore would be leaving one nominee on the slate for both offices A and B as unopposed.  Several days later, some members of the nominating committee voted that another call for nominations go to the entire membership for nominations to ALL offices, requiring that this one nominee to office B then have to resubmit another application in response.  The Chair decided that only offices B and C would be called.  The nominee to Office B contends that this is not fair, since it was stated that their nomination was to be moved from office A to office B in response to the committee's request.  Is it proper to make the nominee that answered the committee request to move to office B, unopposed, now have to contend with possible competition, since that office is now being called for further nominations?  No other filled nominations are being called for further nominations to the slate.  Bylaws are silent.  Any RONR language to address this?

[Josh Martin]

1 hour ago, Guest Karen said:

Is it proper to make the nominee that answered the committee request to move to office B, unopposed, now have to contend with possible competition, since that office is now being called for further nominations?

Yes.

1 hour ago, Guest Karen said:

Any RONR language to address this?

No rule in RONR prohibits it. There is no rule in RONR which protects candidates from competition, or which prevents the nominating committee from changing its mind.

[Guest Karen]

Should the nominating committee accept applications for the positions that were not called for in the additional call for noimnations?  Can the nominees move around to other positions that were not called for?  If so, what is the appropriate process to do so? Is the nomination process a secret to members? 

[Guest Zev]

2 hours ago, Guest Karen said:

Should the nominating committee accept applications for the positions that were not called for in the additional call for noimnations?

This is at the discretion of the committee unless some rule disallows it.

2 hours ago, Guest Karen said:

Can the nominees move around to other positions that were not called for?

If the candidates can self-nominate it seems as though this is possible, again, unless some rule disallows it.

2 hours ago, Guest Karen said:

If so, what is the appropriate process to do so?

RONR assumes that the committee will eventually act like a real committee and make their recommendation to the assembly that will in turn treat that recommendation as a motion.

2 hours ago, Guest Karen said:

Is the nomination process a secret to members?

I do not know why this would be an issue. You said yourself that nominations are taken from the floor at election time. The Nominating Committee has done its job when it presents its report. I fail to see what is wrong with any of this.

I get the impression that you would prefer that certain candidates be considered for certain offices. If this is true then when nomination are opened from the floor say something. Make your nomination. Make a supporting speech why your choice is superior to the others. This is what elections are all about.

[Josh Martin]

5 hours ago, Guest Karen said:

Should the nominating committee accept applications for the positions that were not called for in the additional call for noimnations?  Can the nominees move around to other positions that were not called for?  If so, what is the appropriate process to do so? Is the nomination process a secret to members? 

As you correctly stated in your original post, “It is understood that the Nominating Committee’s duty is to find the best qualified nominee(s) for each elected office.” So far as RONR is concerned, the committee is free to use whatever processes it wishes to perform this task, unless the organization has adopted its own rules governing this process or otherwise instructed the committee in this matter.

Members are free to make nominations from the floor.

Edited March 6, 2019 at 11:32 PM by Josh Martin

[Guest Karen]

Are nominations from the floor made on the same meeting day of the elections or at the previous meeting of the elections right after the nominating committee gives their report?

[Atul Kapur]

Day of the elections. Your rules may also allow for them immediately after the nominating committee report, but this is not necessary

[Josh Martin]

8 hours ago, Atul Kapur said:

Day of the elections. Your rules may also allow for them immediately after the nominating committee report, but this is not necessary

Actually, it seems to me that either (or both) of these is in order. RONR appears to grant the assembly some latitude in this regard.

”The time at which the nominating committee's report is made is a matter to be determined by rule or established custom of the particular organization—depending on its own conditions. In some societies this report is not formally presented to the voting body until the election is pending; but in any organization where advance interest in the election may develop, the nominations submitted by the committee should be made known to the membership earlier. These nominations can be sent to all members, for example, several days before the regular meeting—usually the election meeting itself—at which the chair calls for additional nominations from the floor (see below). The report should always be formally presented at a regular meeting, even if the names of the committee's nominees have been transmitted to the members of the society beforehand. Sometimes—in societies that hold frequent regular meetings—the nominating committee's report is presented at the regular meeting preceding the annual meeting (9) at which the election is to take place.” (RONR, 11th ed, pg. 434)

”After the nominating committee has presented its report and before voting for the different offices takes place, the chair must call for further nominations from the floor. This is another stage of nomination and election procedure for which a number of details should be established by rule or custom of the particular organization. In many organizations, nominations from the floor are called for immediately after the presentation of the nominating committee's report—while the election is pending or earlier. When the calling for nominations from the floor is about to begin, if some time has elapsed since the presentation of the nominating committee's report, the complete list of the committee's nominations should be read again before further nominations are called for.” (RONR, 11th ed., pg. 435)

[Guest EBWB]

Our organization has a nominating committee comprised of 21 members.  If three or more candidates are being considered for a single position would plurality vote be in order where the individual with the most votes receives the nomination?  Or, if the ballots cast do not provide for one of the candidates to receive a majority of the votes (11), would the committee have to continue balloting until a majority is reached?  Our bylaws do not address this.

[jstackpo]

Please post new (even though related) questions, such as this one, as a new topic, then we will tell you whey the answers are "No" and "Yes" in the order you asked and what you can do about it.

[Richard Brown]

11 minutes ago, Guest EBWB said:

Our organization has a nominating committee comprised of 21 members.  If three or more candidates are being considered for a single position would plurality vote be in order where the individual with the most votes receives the nomination?  Or, if the ballots cast do not provide for one of the candidates to receive a majority of the votes (11), would the committee have to continue balloting until a majority is reached?  Our bylaws do not address this.

Guest EBWB, are you referring to the same organization as Guest Karen?  If not, please post your question by starting a new topic per the directions in the first pinned post that says "Important:  Read this first".