Procedures for VHTRC Election of Board Members

The VHTRC Board adopted these measures to guide the election for the board whose term starts on January 1, 2012.

1. Commissioner of Elections: The system will be supervised and run by a responsible person who is not running for the Board. That person reports to the Board. The Commissioner of Elections for this year is Quatro Hubbard, a current Board member who is not running for re-election. His e-mail address is available on the Membership Roster.

2. Candidates: Starting on October 5, potential candidates may send an e-mail to the Commissioner saying that they want to run. Candidates must state that they will have been club members for two years as of January 1, 2012. The Commissioner will resolve all eligibility issues.

3. Nominations: Also starting on October 5, members can e-mail nominations of candidates to the Commissioner. The e-mail need only say "I nominate Joe Blow to be a member of the VHTRC board of directors." or words to that effect.

While it doesn't matter if the declaration of candidacy or the nominations come first, the operative nominations are those identified by the candidate.

Nominations are ineffective for any person who does not declare his or her candidacy. Candidates cannot be drafted and will not be placed on the ballot unless they have declared their candidacy.

Nominators should know that their action will be public.

Here are the requirements from the bylaws on nominators:

"Candidates: All candidates for any elective office must be nominated by two other members of the Club to whom they are not related by blood or marriage or with whom they do not reside. Any one member may not nominate more persons than there are vacant offices in the election."

4. List of Eligible Candidates: The commissioner will keep a public list of (1) those people who have declared their candidacy but who have not been nominated and (2) those people who are official candidates (two nominators and candidate declaration). The names of each candidates two nominators will be listed.

Candidates may choose not to be on the first list and recruit their own nominators. Candidates may designate which two nominators should be listed on the second list. If the candidate does not designate nominators, the Commissioner will list the first two nominations received.

A candidate may withdraw his candidacy at anytime before voting starts.

The Commissioner may communicate with candidates informally as to the status of their nominations.

5. Closing of Candidate Period: The candidate declaration period closes at the end of October 31.

6. Campaign Period: Starting November 5, candidates may put a campaign statement on the Web site. Candidates may change their statements through November 10. Other than the candidate himself, only the Commissioner may edit a campaign statement and then only for obviously inappropriate language.

7. The Election: The election period will start on November 12. The election period will continue for 2 weeks, ending on November 27. To vote, a member will go to the Web site and fill out a form. That form will send an e-mail to the Commissioner, with a copy to the voter. The Commissioner will receive the e-mail and record the votes. A record of the vote not connected with the voter's name is kept on the Web server. At the end of the election period, the Commissioner will notify all candidates and put the results on the Web site. For public purposes, the Web site will list only the top five candidates with the votes they received. A losing candidate can find out his vote and how it compared with others if he wants.

8. Voter Eligibility: All members of the VHTRC as of October 31, 2011, are eligible to vote.

Links

• Bylaws [PDF]
• List of Candidates