Following the 2018 NCRA Annual Business Meeting, members voted to change the procedures for holding elections of members to the Board of Directors. Those changes will go into effect with the 2019 election process.
Overall, the changes will affect the timing of elections and when candidates are elevated to office. Since elections will continue through electronic means, please watch for email notices from NCRA in June and July.
More specifically, the Bylaws changed the following:
- Members will now be able to vote for a time period of 24 hours instead of only for 12 hours.
- Voting will occur at least 30 days before the Annual Business Meeting. (Although the timing of the 2019 Annual Business Meeting has not yet been set, the expected dates for the 2019 NCRA Convention & Expo are Aug. 15-18.) See timeline below.
- Voting on changes to the NCRA Constitution & Bylaws will not take place at the same time as the elections of members to the Board of Directors. Bylaws will continue to be voted on after the Annual Business Meeting, and members will be able to vote on Bylaws amendments for 24 hours.
In addition, if there are more candidates than the number of open seats for Director, candidates will no longer need to specify that they are opposing a specific candidate for a Director’s seat. This will also allow as many candidates who want to run for a seat to do so. Candidates will be elected to the Director seats by plurality of the votes; that is, the Directors’ seats will be filled by the candidates receiving the most votes in descending order. For example, if there were two openings for Directors and five nominees on the ballot, the two candidates who receive the most votes would fill the two available positions.
Finally, the Board of Directors will gradually reduce the number of Directors from nine to six over the next few years. To put this into place, Directors will be nominated to fill two Director seats instead of three. Directors will continue to be elected to three-year terms. (The exception: If additional seats are made available because of a Director’s elevation to Officer or for other reasons, additional candidates will be sought and nominated to complete the remainder of the term.)
This change to six Directors is expected to be completed in three years.
Members interested in nominating a colleague or hoping to serve on the Board may wish to attend a webinar on January 9, 2019, 8 p.m. ET. Contact Laura Butler at boardnominations@ncra.org to learn more about the webinar. Read more information on nominations.
Other amendments that were put into effect following the 2018 Annual Business Meeting do not affect the election procedure.
