I am delighted to announce that AoIR is now seeking your nominations for the new Executive Committee to take office in October of this year and serve until October 2019. Below, 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 March 20, 2017 and will remain open for fifteen (15) days. 2. Nominations close for all positions April 3, 2017. 3. Candidates will be listed on aoir.org and further information will be made available on our membership system, where discussion forums will let you ask questions of the candidates. 4. Voting begins April 24, 2017 at our online balloting site and will remain open for ten (10) days. (Details for accessing this site will be sent in a later message through our membership system.) 5. Voting ends May 3, 2017, expiring at 12:00 noon, U.S. Eastern Time in the State of Delaware. Election results will be announced on air-l. The new committee is formally introduced and assumes its duties during the AoIR conference in Tartu, 18-21 October 2017. More information can be found in the AoIR Bylaws: https://aoir.org/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 me or any of the current office-holder(s) with any questions. 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. 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. Duties of the President: Article 4/Section 6 of AoIR's bylaws. Duties of the VP/President-Elect: Article 4/Section 7 of AoIR's bylaws Duties of the Secretary: Article 4/Section 8 of AoIR's bylaws Duties of the Treasurer: Article 4/Section 9 of AoIR's bylaws Duties of the Graduate Student Representative: Article 4/Section 10 of AoIR's bylaws Duties of Open Seat Directors: Represent the membership of AoIR, and contribute to decision-making. 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). If nominating someone else, confirm with that person that they are willing to run. Self Nominations: Email AoIR Association Coordinator Michelle at <ac at aoir dot org> 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 Association Coordinator Michelle at <ac at aoir dot org> 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 belowl, 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 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 (these questions must be answered in your nomination email): 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. I sincerely hope you will consider running or nominating someone who you think would help advance AoIR and its community of internet scholars. Thanks in advance for those willing to serve! ~Jenny Stromer-Galley President, AoIR