DRAFT ESNE Election Guidelines
According to the Statuto, ESNE has elections scheduled for the May, 2006 jarkunveno. Although that's still a long way off, given the publication schedule for VF, now might be a good time to consider printing a call for volunteers to be candidates.
Here's some information we put together for the process two years ago when Frank White and I were on the nominating committee:
The criteria for running for ESNE office are:
- Must be a fully-paid voting member (regular, family, life -- even possibly student, but not "subscriber" or "friend").
- Must have own transportation or access to same. If they cannot commit to attending at least two meetings a year -- whether or not they're reachable by Boston subway system -- I'd just as soon they didn't run (RARE exceptions MAY be appropriate -- e.g., if Zamenhof wants to run, I'd cut him some slack).
- Must be willing to do the job -- no "place-holder" candidates or officers.
- Must have a telephone and mailing address. I would really prefer it if they also have an email address -- they can get one for free from hotmail or Yahoo! and have free access at most public libraries so there aren't many good excuses for not having one.
- Need NOT be fluent in Esperanto (but should be able to read it well enough to understand VL with the aid of a dictionary).
Here's the text of an article for inclusion into one of the issues of VL for 2003.
Headline: ESNE needs leader-frogs! ESNA bezonas estraranojn!
Estimataj membroj,
ESNE holds elections every two years; the next election will be held in May, 2006 with the results announced at the May Jarkunveno.
Please consider running for one of the offices -- even if someone else already holds that office. Maybe you think you can do better than the current officers or you think some of them need a vacation; maybe you're a masochist; maybe you're retired or unemployed and you need to keep busy or your spouse wants you to keep busy; maybe the judge wants you to do some community service ... If the meetings are too far away from you, remember the president gets to pick meeting locations. Also, serving as an officer in such an august organization as ESNE looks great on a resume! Whatever the reason, competition is good and a contested election might be fun.
You don't need to be fluent in Esperanto to hold office, although it helps to know at least a little and you can learn more while in office. You must be a member of ESNE to run for office or to vote in the election so make sure your membership is up to date. Because ESNE covers such a wide geographic area, it helps to have an email account and access to the internet for communication with the other officers.
In addition to the general requirements for officers, the specific duties of each office as described in the ESNE Statuto are stated below. These descriptions are intentionally vague in order to provide flexibility.
Prezidanto / President
La prezidanto prezidu dum cxiuj kunvenoj, estru la laboron de la aliaj oficistoj, kaj oficiale reprezentu ESNA/ESNE.
The president shall preside over all meetings, lead the work of the other officers, and represent ESNA/ESNE officially.
Vic-prezidanto / Vice-president
La vic-prezidanto anstatauxu la prezidanton kiam la prezidanto ne povas plenumi siajn devojn.
The vice president shall substitute for the president when the president is unable to fulfill his or her duties.
Koresponda Sekretario / Corresponding Secretary
La koresponda sekretario prizorgu la protokolon de cxiuj kunvenoj, respondu al skribaj petoj pri la organizajxo, kaj konservu registron de membroj.
The corresponding secretary shall keep the minutes of each meeting, respond to written requests of the organization, and maintain the membership roster.
Eduka Sekretario / Education Secretary
La eduka sekretario prizorgu lecionajn materialojn kaj aliajn edukajn servojn al membroj.
The education secretary shall be responsible for lesson materials and other educational services for the members.
Redaktoro / Editor
La redaktoro prizorgu la bultenon.
The editor shall be responsible for the newsletter.
Kasisto / Treasurer
La kasisto akceptu cxiujn kotizojn kaj faru detalan financan raporton cxe cxiu maja kunveno de ESNA/ESNE.
The treasurer shall accept all dues payments and shall produce a detailed financial report for each May annual
meeting of ESNA/ESNE.
Please consider helping out with the club's work. If you have any specific questions about the duties of any of the offices, please ask.
David's comment on the above:
You might add a note that being an officer in a nonprofit looks good on your resume. For those of our members who are not yet retired, or who have careers where they need a resume instead of an application form...
Bill's comments included:
Fourth, once the VL prints an article about this election, I intend to add it to the webpage.
AFAIK, ESNE doesn't have a nominating committee this year (yet) and I'm not available to serve on one at this time. So I'll just pass along a list of what needs to be done next (in reverse order so the dependencies are more obvious)
At the May 2006 Jarkunveno have a bunch of spare blank ballots for any attendees who have not already voted. Count all the ballots received as of the start of the meeting by snail mail, email, Pony Express, dog sled, ktp. and add to those any ballots turned in at the meeting (hand-carried to or filled out at the meeting). Any ballots received after that can be ignored. (We should be so lucky to get any ballots other than those cast by the officers.)
In the last issue of VF to be sent at least one month -- and I'd recommend at least an extra week -- in advance of the May 2006 Jarkunveno, include the election ballot with all candidates (both declared and a blank line for write-ins for each office), referenda, Statuto amendoj, ktp. This will give all members at least one month to snail mail or email them if they can't attend the meeting.
Before that, ask the most likely members (see article above, but a phone poll in addition would not be out of line) to volunteer to run for any office. Try to fill the empty offices first, but it wouldn't hurt to have healthy competition for any office already occupied (we can always use the losers -- uh 2nd-place finishers -- as understudies, assistants, or something). Clearly this should be done before finalizing the ballot. When trying to recruit new people as officers, don't tell them which offices are already filled because they'll be unlikely to run against an incumbent unless really angry with the performance of that incumbent.
Before that, ask all current officers whether they'd be willing to run again for the same (or a different) office. This will provide some idea as to which offices are likely to be vacant and will require the most recruiting effort. I'd recommend waiting on this step until the Z-f or later -- there's a limit to how far in advance people should be asked to plan.