Role Responsibilities

The SIG nominating chair plays a pivotal role in the SIG’s election process. The nominating chair is appointed by the SIG president in consultation with the SIG executive board no later than mid-January. 

Forming the Nominating Committee

• The nominating chair should meet with the SIG president and executive board to determine which SIG officer roles will be elected that year and review the election process in the bylaws.

• Typically there are two calls-to-action, the first is for the nominating committee (unless, pursuant to your bylaws the board appoints the entire nominating committee). The second call- to-action is for the board roles up for election that year. Together with the website and communications chairs, the nominating chair should issue these two calls-to-action to all members of the SIG.

• The first call-to-action is for volunteers to serve on the nominating committee, unless your SIG board appoints the nominating committee.

• Volunteers for the nominating committee are ineligible to stand for any elected office during the upcoming SIG elections. The deadline to express interest in serving on the nominating committee should be no later than the end of January so you can fill the rest of the committee.

• You can link to a Google Form in your call-to-action email and announcement on the website in which you can invite interested alumnae to put their names forward to serve on the nominating committee and submit a statement of interest. The nominating committee is a fairly intense, but time-limited way to become more involved with the SIG.

• Once you have the volunteers for the nominating committee, you should build a committee as defined in your bylaws. If your bylaws do not address the nominating committee specifically, please be aware that it is important that the nominating committee have alums representing different decades and geographic locations.

• Set times for the nominating committee to meet, in person or via phone, Zoom, Google Hangout, etc. 

Call for Nominations 

• Once the nominating committee is created, it should immediately issue a call for nominations for the specific officer roles to all members of the SIG. You may work together with the website and communications chairs to get this message out.

• You can send a Google Form with a call-to-action email that links to the role specific toolkits and also invite alumnae to indicate any and all positions in which they would be interested. Most SIG bylaws allow for officer roles to be shared by two SIG members as co-officers.  

• Be sure to include role descriptions for each officer position.

• The call for nominations is a good opportunity to contact alumnae with no emails on file via regular mail and remind them that they have no email listed in their profile. 

• Be sure to ask for a statement of intent from any alumnae who wishes to stand for office. Be clear about the deadline to submit one’s candidacy.

• The deadline for the officer call-to-action is determined by each SIG, but should be before mid-March so the nominating committee has time to reach out to each nominee and compose the slate of officers for ratification. 

• Once the nomination deadline has passed, meet with the nominating committee and develop a process for how each of you will evaluate the candidacy of the nominees. It is recommended that the committee call each nominee to discuss their interest.

• Remember that the nominating committee is crafting a slate of incoming officer nominees for the roles that will turn over that year who they believe will work well together for the good of the SIG and who represent a range of class years and geographic locations.

• If there is not a nominee for a specific role, the nominating committee should engage in outreach to prospective officers.

Voting and Announcing New Officers

• Once the nominating committee has agreed on the nominees for each position the slate should also be posted on the SIG website and social media channels.

• The slate should be emailed with the ballot (this can be a Google form or SurveyMonkey link) to all alumnae via your SIG’s website.

• The ballot should be active for a set period of time. Voting should remain confidential. Remember the vote is whether or not to approve the slate of officers presented by the nominating committee.

• The nominating chair should track the voting progress.

• Together with the communications, newsletter, and website chair the nominating chair should continue to announce and encourage voting during the voting period.

• Once the voting period has ended, the nominating chair should verify the votes and announce if the slate has been approved. 

• At the SIG annual meeting, the nominating chair announces that the slate has been ratified and introduces the new SIG officers. This may also be done as an email to the entire SIG.

Communications and Social Media 

As nominating chair, you should reach out to alumnae on a regular basis and use every opportunity to encourage alums to sit on the nominating committee or stand for office on the SIG executive board. You should also work closely with the communications team to distribute the ballot to ratify the proposed slate of officers and encourage timely voting.  

Newsletters/Emails/Social Media 

• Together with the SIG communications leader, establish a timeline for regular communication highlighting the calls to action, announcing the proposed slate of officers and encouraging voting to approve the slate.