The election of new Board members has two major parts: nominating candidates and electing the candidates. Nominating candidates is done first by the Nominating Committee. Once the candidates have been identified the election process is generally done by others, often members of the Websites Committee.
To encourage members to nominate candidates for the Board, the Immediate Past President places announcements in the "Fall Prime Times", the November "E-News" and in late November, requests the Websites committee post a link on the ASURA homepage to the Board Nominating Procedure.
Sample Prime Times article (September)
Each year in the late winter / early spring, ASURA holds an election for five new ASURA Board members. The Board manages the affairs of the Association and establishes policies as needed to carry out its mission. Members of the Board are elected for a term of three years and meet monthly during the academic year.
You may offer the name of a current ASURA member or your own name as a potential Board member by notifying the Nominating Committee chair of your nomination. To be sure that your nominee’s name gets on the ballot, you can (as mandated by ASURA Bylaws) submit a petition of nomination bearing the signatures of at least ten current ASURA members.
For a bit more information go to https://asura.asu.edu/board-nominating-procedure.
All nominating petitions must be received by mid-January. Please send names and/or nominating petitions to:
"Insert the name of Immediate Past President",
Chair of ASURA Board Nominating Committee
PO Box 875504
Tempe, AZ 85287-5504
"insert the E-mail address of the Immediate Past President"
Sample E-News article (November)
We are beginning the process of finding a fresh crop of Board members who could be you! Each year ASURA holds a lat winter/early spring election for five new Board members. The Board manages the affairs of the Association and establishes policies as needed to carry out its mission. Board members are elected for a term of three years. The Board meets monthly during the academic year.
I encourage you to offer the names of current ASURA members or yourself as a potential Board member by notifying the Nominating Committee chair, "insert name of current Immediate Past President", of your nomination(s). To be sure that your nominee’s name gets on the ballot, you can (as mandated by ASURA Bylaws) submit a Petition of Nomination bearing the signatures of at least ten current ASURA members. If you would like a bit more information go to Board nominating procedure.
All nominating petitions must be received by mid-January.
Send your suggestions or self-nomination to:
"insert name of current Immediate Past President", chair of 2025 Nominating committee
Address of Board nominating Procedure (Late November)
Following is the main work done by the committee,
- By mid-December populate the Nominating Committee. There is no fixed membership, but the Vice President is often a member. The committee should have four or five members.
- In early January convene the Committee to discuss who they want to contact. Who the Committee decides to contact is influenced by a number different factors, e.g., those:
- who were nominated by a member or are self-nominated,
- on the list of past contacts who indicated they might be interested in the future
- known by those on the Committee,
- Introductory members who have attended at least one event
- members who meet some special requirements, e.g., retired less than 5 years
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who were past members who might be interested in being on the Board again
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Note: requests for special lists should be sent to the Database Management Committee.
- Once the Committee has the list of possible candidates they begin calling / emailing them. While there is no requirement to do so, the committee often tries to find candidates who keep the Board balanced, e.g., faculty / staff, campus, etc.
- Each identified candidate is asked to submit a brief bio and a headshot
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The selection process should be completed by the end of January. The last committee task is to generate a list of all the members contacted and the results of the contact. Once the list is complete it should be sent to Database Management Committee to update the database.
While you could wait to create the ballots until all candidates have been identified and their election material (bio and head shot) have been received, historically the ballots have been created as the candidates are identified. The committee chair sends all the candidate materials to the Websites Committee and asks them to create the ballots (see Board ballot creation) and to inform you when the ballots have been completed.
There are five different ballot documents that have to be created / updated.
- The paper ballot sent by snail mail sent to those members who chose to not vote electronically
- The aper ballot that can be downloaded, very similar to snail mail ballot
- The email announcement that electronic voting can begin
- The Google Forms ballot
- The Board election page
Once the chair knows all the ballots are ready, a date for the election can be set. There are no hard and fast rules about when or how long the election should be. The only constraint in the Bylaws is that the results of the election must be known by the April Board meeting. Historically Board elections have been 30 days long but there has been very little voting after the first couple of weeks.
- Two weeks before the planned opening of the election ask the Websites Committee to send the snail mail ballot to the Mailing Operations Manager to be mailed out.
- Ask the Websites Committee to open the electronic election on the starting date selected.
The following tasks are done by the committee chair.
- In early January submit an article for the spring Prime Times, encouraging members to vote and giving them information on how to get a ballot if they have lost the ballot sent to them by either US Postal Service or email.
- After the election has started ask the Websites Committee to post on the homepage a link to the Board of Directors election page.
- Ask the E-News editor to include an item in E-New during the election encouraging members to vote and giving them information about how to vote if they have misplaced their ballot materials.
At the close of the election, the committee chair has the following duties to complete.
- Ask the Websites Committee to close the electronic balloting and to report the electronic ballot counts
- Since there are several ways ballots are submitted it is necessary to work with the Office Administrator and the Websites Committee to get the ballots submitted by mail and by email..
- Call a meeting of the Executive Committee to count the ballots, This needs to be done before the April Board meeting.
- The Immediate Past President Informs the current Board of the election results.
- Typically, the Vice President contacts the elected Board members to let them know the results of the election
Updated 5/12/2025 by Barry McNeill