NOMINATING OFFICERS

The purpose of nominating officers is to select good candidates from whom the officers will be elected. It is a very important procedure because the elected officers will be no better than the best of the nominees.

One of the most common and best ways of nominating officers is through the use of a committee. More intensive study is devoted to the individual qualifications for the several offices when a committee is used than when nominations are made from the floor or by ballot. The size of the chapter may determine somewhat who should make up the Nominating Committee. A small chapter with five or six seniors can use all of the seniors for this purpose. In a large chapter the senior officers plus the senior members of the Executive Committee could be used. Seniors are recommended to make the nominations because they usually know best the qualifications necessary for the officers. They have also had a longer period than the other members to observe the interests, attitudes, and abilities of the prospective nominees. The seniors can make nominations without bias because they are no longer eligible for offices. It is assumed that the nominations are made previous to the school term and that the seniors are readily available for such committee meetings.

The advisor should meet with the Nominating Committee as it selects the one or two members best suited for each office. The advisor can help assure that all factors are carefully considered. In the process every member in the organization should be given consideration. Two or three meetings may be necessary to select the nominees.

In arriving at the nominations it is well for the committee to know the interests of the members in serving as officers, as well as to know their qualifications. Some organizations have made use of application forms. These documents ask members to report some of their experiences and honors in the group and in other organizations. The members are also asked to indicate the offices in which they have most interest and write a paragraph telling why. If this procedure is not followed, selected members of the Nominating Committee should contact the prospective nominees to learn of their interest in serving as officers, if elected. Still another method, which is used extensively by some organizations, is to have selected candidates for office meet with the Nominating Committee on an interview basis. It may be desirable to use a combination of these procedures, particularly in large organizations.

Generally, provisions are made for nominations from the floor on the day of the elections. This is a democratic procedure. Likewise, it keeps the door open for a good defeated candidate in one office to be nominated for another. This assumes that the person is qualified and that the offices are being balloted upon one at a time.

Nominations from the floor allow those members to be nominated who may not be qualified. A preventive measure for this is to require the members who make the nominations to give a short talk to point out the reasons why they think the nominee(s) should be elected to the office. This requirement may be included in the bylaw of the organization. The bylaws generally include a requirement that no one may be nominated from the floor who was not interviewed by the nominating committee.

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Send questions about this website to Denise Davies at ddavies@ag.arizona.edu.   For course information or questions not included in these pages contact Dr. James Knight. Copyright (c) 1998 Department of Agricultural Education, The University of Arizona.  Website version 1.2, last updated on Thursday, August 16, 2001.