April 27, 2002 – report is revised after the 4/25/02 LAUC-LA Spring Membership Meeting

To: Maureen Russell, LAUC-LA Chair

From: Rita Costello, 2002 LAUC-LA Nominating Committee Chair

SLATE OF CANDIDATES

The Committee (Julie Kwan, Alan Michelson, Suzanne Shellaby and Elaine Shiner) nominates the following slate of candidates to run for the 2002/03 term:

CHAIR-ELECT

Ellen Broidy

Bruce Whiteman – Bruce was nominated from the floor at the Spring Meeting 4/25/02

SECRETARY

Beth Feinberg

Heidi Sandstrom

REPRESENTATIVE

Ruby Gutierrez

Rhonda Lawrence

Libbie Stephenson

Ken Wade

TIMETABLE

Committee began to organize itself on January 10.  February 22 we posted to LAUC-talk a call for our members to help identify potential candidates. The committee first met February 13 and worked through April 12 with the goal to identify 8 candidates for run for 4 offices.  During these 2 months, we were unsuccessful to secure a second candidate for Chair-Elect and the slate we submitted consisted of 7 candidates.  On April 16 Nominating went back to the membership with a general email message asking for someone to consider placing his/her name on the ballot for the June election to offer members a choice for the top-office.  It is interesting to note that we began and ended our deliberations soliciting input from our members.

NOMINATIONS FROM THE FLOOR

In accordance with our bylaws, at our Spring Membership Meeting on April 25, the Nominating Committee will call for nominations from the floor for all three offices.  One candidate’s name was added to the slate and that is Bruce Whitman, Head of the Clark memorial Library, for the office of Chair-Elect.

UNUSUAL AMOUNT OF DECLINES THIS YEAR

The committee received 30 declines; 23 of these were for the office of Chair-Elect.  Of these 23 declines 13 indicated a willingness to be contacted in the future when timing is more favorable.  Reasons given for the inability to participate, in descending order, include workload; lack experience; non-interest; personal; and preexisting LAUC commitments.  The committee has discussed this situation and we continue to discuss possibly remedies or information we can disseminate to help members feel more inclined to accept elected positions; especially the top office.  We have no specific recommendations to make at this time. 

ACTION ITEM: FORTHCOMING PROGAM

At the Spring meeting there was discussion on this year’s difficulties in finding two candidates for the office of Chair-Elect.   Several officers who have held the position of Chair-Elect through Past Chair made enthusiastic and unsolicited testimonials on the benefits to these offices.  The membership recommends that a summer program be developed with past Chair-Elects addressing the realities of the office; what skills are needed to be successful; how holding this office is valued by different parties from Library Administration to the individual and what documentation already exists to help with the workload issue.  Nominating will be in touch with the Programs Committee about developing these ideas intended to encourage those interested in holding this office.

BYLAWS

In my original mid-year report dated April 18, 2002, I neglected to capture a significant bylaws issue that need to be corrected with the next bylaws revision LAUC-LA will undertake.

Article 6 Section 11

Section B – Nominating Committee gives slate of candidates to the Secretary 45 days prior to the Election.  This year’s election will be June 10, 2002 and 45 days prior is April 25.

Section C --  At least 2 weeks prior to the Spring Meeting the Secretary notifies membership of the slate of candidates.  The local Spring meeting was April 25 and 2 weeks prior was April 11.

Because the local Spring Meeting was so early; timing became out of sync.  The Secretary was to notify members of the slate by April 11 however Nominating Committee was to give the information to the Secretary by April 25 – a full 2 weeks after the slate was to be announced to the LAUC-LA membership.  Logically this is no possible. 

Pertinent issues to be further examined include:

1. using relative dates (so many days before an event) in lieu of absolute dates (by April 25).  Because bylaws dates are expressed in relative terms somewhat hampers the Nominating Committee because when we began work on January 10, the date of the Statewide election was unknown; the dates of the Statewide and local Spring Meetings were also unknown.  These dates are key for other events to happen
2. when local and Statewide Spring Meetings are held early; that is quite far in advance of the mid-June election
3. bylaws vocabulary is imprecise about if these are dates from the local Spring Meeting or the Statewide Spring meeting – this year’s Nominating Committee assumed local Spring Meeting.  However a case could be made for Statewide Spring Meetings as our elections are tied together

The Nominating Committee thanks the 8 members whose names appear on the 2002 slate, as well as all colleagues we contacted about their interest in serving for an elected office. I thank Committee members for their hard work and generous spirit during this protracted time as we compiled the slate of candidates.  We wish each candidate well in the upcoming election.