At 06:26 AM 12/20/97 -0800, you wrote:
<snip>
>
>I note further that many organizations have an "Election Committee"
>-- I don't know, from personal experience, what these committees do,
>but the name is certainly suggestive.
Dear Kent:
>From my experience, elections in formal organisations like the American
Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) and Tokyo American Club (TAC), there is
a Nominating Committee which proposes a list of candidates. More nominees
may be added by letter and from the floor at the AGM.
The ballot is prepared in the office of the Executive Director, much like a
Secretariat.
What is called an Election Committee is really the "Teller's Committee",
where 1. the envelopes are checked for a proper signature from a member. 2.
the envelopes are opened and the inner envelop removed to keep the ballot
secret, 3. the votes are tallied.
With Dan's procedure, Dan "prints and mails" the ballot not a secretariat.
Function 1 of the Tellers Committee is performed by accepting only ballots
coming from the Email addresses of bona fide members. There is no function
2 as we have no secrecy of our balloting. Item 3 is done by the software.
While no one "audits" the procedure, each of us is able to verify that our
votes were properly recorded.
Thus, no Election Committee is needed. A Nominating Committee could
benefit PAB. I often criticise nominating committees, especially in TAC
and ACCJ where the President appoints the members of the nominating
committee. However, with an organisation like PAB, I think it could be
good to have a nominating committee as it is very easy for others to offer
nominations -- the *floor is always open* to more nominations.
The ACCJ Nominating Committee is a standing committee and meets from time
to time during the year. In almost every case, there are mid-term
resignations as officers and/or governors are transferred out of Japan.
One good thing about the ACCJ system, no one who has been a member of the
committee during the prior three months may be nominated by the nominating
committee.
I suggest that "lame duck" members of the Excom could appoint members of
the nominating committee. The ACCJ rule should be considered in the
Charter of the Nominating Committee. In other words, members should be
selected who would not consider running for office.
Just some thoughts.
Personal regards,
BobC
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