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 to serve until October 2011. We are seeking members' interest in nominating for the new executive and providing notice for everyone of the voting timeline and procedures. Here is an overview of the election timeline, procedures and positions for nomination, as determined strictly by the Association's by-laws. Voting instructions will be provided later and separately. **Please note the different timing for officers and other positions** TIME FRAME OF THE ELECTION: 1. Call for Nominations: opens June 8, 2009 2. Nominations close for the 4 officer positions: July 15, 2009 Nominations close for the 1 grad student and 3 open seats on the executive: July 30, 2009 3. Ballot sent to members August 7, 2009 4. Voting begins: August 10, 2009 (Ballot-counter to be announced by 1. August, 2009) 5. Voting ends for 4 officer positions: August 24, 2009 Voting ends for 1 grad student and 3 open seats: September 7, 2009 The new committee is formally announced and assumes its duties at the end of the Annual General Meeting during the AoIR conference, 7-11 October 2009. (Specific time of the AGM to be announced soon.) During the period of voting, a forum will be available for discussion with candidates. Candidates' statements will also be made available with the ballot sent to members. A QUICK ORGANIZATIONAL PRIMER: The organizational structure of AoIR is simple. There are 4 officers, 3 open seat representatives, 1 graduate student representative and 2 appointed positions who together with the Immediate Past President make up the 11-member executive committee that runs the show. Elected officials hold their positions for two years. In this election, you are invited to nominate yourself or anyone else whom you think would do a good job, for any position other than the President - the current Vice President assumes the Presidency. Here are brief descriptions of positions 1. President: the "CEO", supervises the organization, performs certain legally required duties. [The Current VP becomes the President] 2. Vice President: "back up" for President, various duties as they arise; *becomes President after 2 years* 3. Secretary: Handles records and membership matters. 4. 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. 5. Graduate Student Representative: responsible for running graduate student activities (must be a grad student, but all can vote) 6-8. Open Committee Seats: Three open Seats on the Executive Committee Represent membership of AoIR, contribute to decision making. Take responsibility for specific projects or activities to promote the association within their term. 9-10. Appointed positions to manage systems and email lists 11. Immediate Past President Candidates should also familiarise themselves formal statement of duties and responsibilities in the Association's by-laws: <http://aoir.org/?page_id=10> NOMINATIONS AND ELECTION 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 Sabryna Cornish <sabrynac@niu.edu> and indicate the position for which you are nominating and you will be added to the list of nominees. Please provide, in your nomination email a short candidate statement addressing the questions below. Nominating Others: Email AoIR Secretary Sabryna Cornish <sabrynac@niu.edu> 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 and intends to be enrolled for the coming northern academic year (defined to be September 2009-June 2010) The voting system used by AoIR is one vote per member for each of the seven positions for election listed above. Votes are counted by a ballot counter who is a member of the Association but not a member of the executive. In the case of the four 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 the Graduate Student representative, the candidate with the highest number of votes shall be declared the winner In the case of tied results for the officer positions, the winner shall be determined by the ballot counter, 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. QUESTIONS FOR CANDIDATES 1) What is your interest in this position? 2) What are your qualifications for this position (including prior experience and participation in AoIR)? 3) What are two or three short-term goals you would like to achieve through membership of the executive (include a rationale for each and how you would contribute to their achievement)? 4) What is your long-term vision for AoIR? 5) 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 carefully contributing your time and energy to making AoIR even better in the upcoming years! I would also encourage persons interested in running for a specific position to contact the current office-holder(s) with any specific questions, etc. Looking forward to it! Many thanks in advance to all who will consider running and serving AoIR in this way. - charles ess Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies Drury University, Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA Professor MSO (med særlige opgaver), Department of Information and Media Studies Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark President, Association of Internet Researchers Co-editor, International Journal of Internet Research Ethics <http://ijire.net/> Co-chair, CATaC conferences <www.catacconference.org> Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23