By: Deborah Seehorn and Dave Reed
The primary purpose of the CSTA Nominations and Elections Committee is to oversee and maintain the nominations and elections process.
The primary functions of the committee are listed below.
- Conduct and oversee the Call for Nominations prior to each Board of Directors election.
- Actively recruit and bring forth qualified applicants to maintain diversity on the Board of Directors.
- Ensure that recruiting of applicants for open positions on the Board of Directors occurs prior to the close of nominations. If only one qualified nomination is received, the Nominations and Elections committee may seek additional candidates.
- Select two applicants from the pool of nominations for each open Board of Director position during an election period. These two applicants will then be presented to the general membership during the Board of Directors election process. If only one qualified nominee can been found, that nominee will be acclaimed.
- Work with staff to facilitate the sharing of candidate information with the members.
- Work with the Executive Director and CSTA staff to select and refine technologies for conducting fair and secure election. Election technologies shall be approved by the Board of Directors.
- Ensure that all elections are carried out in accordance with the current Bylaws and Board of Directors Policies and Procedures.
- Make recommendations to the Board of Directors for qualified candidates to fill vacated positions on the Board of Directors.
- Provide recommendations to the Board for the revision of the current election process and eligibility requirements of candidates.
- Stagger the elections for the positions of 9-12 Teacher Representative and At-Large Representative so that only one from each is position is elected each year. If more than one position from either of these representative categories will become vacant in the following year, the Board may vote to extend the term of one of the current representatives for a period of one year. The Chair will determine which of the two current representatives will be asked to extend their term of service
For the 2015 CSTA Board Election, the Call for Nominations was issued in November 2014. Nominations closed on February 1, 2015. CSTA received an ample number of well-qualified nominations for each of the three open board positions. Each member of the Nominations and Elections Committee reviews the qualifications of the nominees and rates them based on an objective rubric. These ratings are then used to select the top two nominees for each board position. Those two nominees become the two candidates for each board position. The candidate qualifications are then posted on the CSTA website. This year candidates also submitted blog posts to the CSTA Advocate blog https://advocate.csteachers.org/.
The Election Buddy website was set up for the 2015 Election, and the election began on April 2, 2015. The election will conclude on May 4, 2015. The newly elected board members will be notified and then announced to the CSTA membership shortly thereafter. The new board members will participate in the CSTA Board Meeting in Grapevine, Texas in July.
The current members of the CSTA Curriculum Committee are:
Dave Reed, Creighton University, DaveReed@creighton.edu
Tammy Pirmann, School District of Springfield Township, PA, tpirmann@gmail.com
Karen Lang, Former Board Member, kdclang@gmail.com
Deborah Seehorn, NC Department of Public Instruction, deborah.seehorn@dpi.nc.gov
Lissa Clayborn, Acting CSTA Executive Director, l.clayborn@csta-hq.org
We welcome your comments and suggestions on how the CSTA Nominations and Elections Committee can better meet the needs of our CSTA members.
Deborah Seehorn
CSTA Nominations and Elections Committee Chair and Board Chair
Dave Reed
CSTA Nominations and Elections Committee and Board Chair-Elect
