Dear all, I am pleased to announce that AoIR has now commenced the process of electing a new Executive Committee to take office in October of this year and serve until October 2015. We are seeking nominations for the new executive. I also note that voting for your executive committee is one of the privileges of membership in AoIR. This is one of the ways you can shape the organization. So if you have let your membership lapse or have not yet signed up, now would be a great time to join AoIR! Here is an overview of the election timeline, procedures and positions for nomination, as determined by the Association's by-laws. This year we will be handling voting through an election management site, and voting instructions will be provided later. Below in this email, you will find: A. Time frame of the election. B. Description of the AoIR governance system and of the elected positions. C. Nominations and Elections Processes. And D. Questions for Candidates. A. Time Frame of the Election: 1. Call for Nominations: opens April 25, 2013. 2. Nominations close for all positions (4 officer positions and 3 open seats) May 8, 2013. 3. Candidate information will be made available to AoIR members on aoir.org and will be sent to air-l. 4. Voting begins May 22, 2013 at the balloting site. (Details for accessing this site will be sent in a later email.) 5. Voting ends May 31, 2013. The new committee is formally announced and assumes its duties at the end of the Annual General Meeting during the AoIR conference, 23-26 October 2013. B. AoIR Governance and Description of Elected Positions: The organizational structure of AoIR is simple. There are 5 officers (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Graduate Student representative). The 9-member Executive Committee consists of these officers, plus the Past President and 3 open seat representatives. Elected officials hold their positions for two years. After two years, the Vice President becomes President. In this election, nominations are invited for Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Graduate Student representative, and 3 open seats. You may nominate yourself or someone else you think would do a good job. Details on the nomination procedure follow below. Here are brief descriptions of positions: President: Acts as "CEO" and supervises the organization. The President’s duties include serving as part of the Conference Committee. This position is not directly elected, as the Vice President becomes President after two years. Vice President: "Back up" for President, performing various duties as they arise; becomes President after 2 years. The Vice President also serves on the Conference Committee. Secretary: Handles records and membership matters. Treasurer: Liaises with Secretary to maintain membership records; takes care of financial and related administrative duties (e.g., annual report to membership and U.S. tax authorities), including close attention to the annual Internet Research (IR) conference budget. The Treasurer serves on the Conference Committee. Graduate Student Representative: Responsible for running graduate student activities. The Graduate Student Representative must be actively enrolled in a degree program at the time of nomination and election. All members can vote for the grad student representative. Open Committee Seats: Three open Seats on the Executive Committee represent membership of AoIR, and contribute to decision-making. Immediate Past President: Serves on the Executive Committee. More information can be found in the AoIR Bylaws: http://aoir.org/about/bylaws-statements-and-policies/bylaws/ Candidates should familiarize themselves with the duties laid out in the Bylaws. I also encourage persons interested in running for a specific position to contact the current office-holder(s) with any specific questions, etc. C. Nominations and Elections Processes. Only a member of AoIR can run for a position, nominated by anyone. If nominated for more than one position a nominee must choose to run for one (and only one) position in this election. You may nominate yourself or another person (or people). Self Nominations: Email AoIR Secretary Catherine Middleton <catherine.middleton at ryerson.ca> and indicate the position for which you are nominating yourself. Please provide, in your nomination email a short candidate statement addressing the questions below. Nominating Others: Email AoIR Secretary Catherine Middleton <catherine.middleton at ryerson.ca> with the name of the person you want to nominate, the position for which you are nominating this person, contact information for that person, and an indication of whether you know if this person would accept this nomination. (If you don't know, we'll contact them and ask). All candidates for election will be required to provide answers to the questions listed at the end of this email, have the answers posted to the AoIR election forum website, and participate in an online candidate forum. In addition the Graduate Student candidates must confirm in their response that they comply with the by-laws: The Graduate Student Representative must be actively enrolled in a degree program at the time of nomination and election. The voting system used by AoIR is one vote per member for each of the eight positions for election listed above. Votes will be tallied using a balloting software site. In the case of the four directly elected officers, the candidate with the highest number of votes shall be declared the winner; in the case of the open seats, the three candidates with the highest, second-highest and third highest votes shall be declared the winners of the open seats. In the case of tied results for the officer positions, the winner shall be determined by the ballot counters, by drawing of lots, using a method that ensures each of the tying candidates has an equal chance of success and witnessed by at least 1 person independent of the association. In the case of tied results for the open seat positions, the drawing of lots shall be used only when there are more tied candidates than seats available. D. Questions for Candidates: 1. What are your qualifications for this position (including prior experience and participation in AoIR)? 2. Please describe two or three short-term goals you would like to achieve through membership on the executive (including a rationale for each and how you would contribute to their achievement). 3. What is your long-term vision for AoIR? 4. What else should voters consider when deciding whether or not to vote for you? In answering the questions, please be concise and give information specific to the position for which you are nominating and which will permit voters to assess your case for election to that position. In closing - please consider contributing your time and energy to making AoIR even better in the upcoming years! Many thanks in advance to all who will consider running and serving AoIR in this way. Lori Kendall Vice President, AoIR ______________________