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Nominations Committee 2007-2009 The Nomination Committee is chaired by the Past-President. Although the members of the Nominating Committee are appointed by the President, these appointments must be approved by the Council. The Nominations Committee is charged with soliciting nominations for the Society's officers, composing a slate of candidates for election, overseeing the election procedure and tallying of votes, and announcing the results of the election.
Relevant Bylaws
Article III. Procedures Nomination Members may also nominate a candidate directly. If two or more members nominate the same person for the same office, then that person will be considered nominated, according to our bylaws. Any person nominated for an office will be contacted by the Nominations Committee and notified of their nomination. Nominees must accept their nomination before appearing on the ballot. Nominations Committee constructs preliminary slate With suggestions from the membership and members of the committee, the Nominations Committee chooses prospective nominees, contacts them about their willingness to serve, and solicits brief (about 100 word) biographies. A preliminary slate of nominees is constructed consisting of nominees for President-Elect, Program Officer, Secretary, Treasurer, and Council members (three elected each cycle). Announcing the preliminary slate and soliciting additional nominations The preliminary slate of candidates from the Nominations Committee is announced in the spring on the Society email list. Members are invited to review the slate and submit their own nominations, if they desire to do so (in accordance with the Bylaws). The procedure to nominate others (or yourself) for any of the elected positions includes sending the name of the nominee, the position for which that individual is being nominated, a brief (100 word) biography, and the nominee's statement that she or he is willing to stand for election to the Chair of the Nominating Committee. To be included on the final slate, each nominee must receive two nominations for the same position from current members of the Society. The final date for such nominations and supporting material is announced with the preliminary slate of candidates. The deadline must allow for the printing of the ballots and biographies in time to comply with election deadlines, as specified in the Bylaws. Balloting A three-candidate election has been handled in the past by using a preferential ballot, a device that virtually ensures that the president who is elected will receive a majority of the votes cast.The ballot could be set up as follows: Vote for 0, 1, or 2 candidates, 1 for your first choice, 2 for your second. If there is no one with a majority on the first round (counting 1s only), eliminate the third place person and distribute that individual's second-place votes between the two remaining candidates. If there is another nominee from the membership, vote for up to 3 and do the same elimination drill starting with elimination of the 4th place person. There were two election issues before the Council in 1999. One was whether candidates could run for two offices (there was at least one candidate for President-Elect AND Council in that cycle). To that the answer was that we would not allow that again. A second issue before the Council in 2003 was whether the Nominations Committee could nominate only one person for Program Officer. The decision was yes. Collecting and Tallying Votes Although the Secretary is charged with overseeing the election, the Secretary is elected each year. Hence it has become the practice for the Secretary to delegate to the Past-President the task of receiving the ballots and tallying the votes. Announcing the Results The Past-President announces the election results at the General Business Meeting at the Conference and prepares and sends to the Secretary an announcement for the following fall newsletter. Call for Nominations for Officers of the International Society for History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology The Society must elect a President-elect to serve that function 2005-2007 (while Garland Allen is President) and then become President, 2007-2009. Nominees are also needed for three members of the council to serve 2005-2009, for Program Officer for ISH07, as well as for Secretary and Treasurer. The latter two officers are eligible to succeed themselves. We encourage suggestions to the nominations committee. Members may also nominate a candidate directly. If two or more members nominate the same person for the same office, then that person will be considered nominated, according to our bylaws. Any person nominated for an office will be contacted by the Nominations Committee and notified of their nomination. Nominees must accept their nomination before appearing on the ballot. To ensure that suggestions and nominations are taken into account, they should be sent by December 15, 2004, to the chair of the Nominations Committee, Lindley Darden, darden@umd.edu, or to the Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Nominations Committee Report 2003
Nominations Committee Report to Council 1. Election results A slate of three candidates for President-Elect, six candidates for Council, and one candidate each for Program Officer, Secretary, and Treasurer was put before the membership, first for additional nominations., and second for a vote. The outcome of the vote was clearcut:
President-Elect (2003-2005): On behalf of the Nominating Committee I would like to thank all of the individuals who stood for Society offices. The Committee was very pleased to be able to present an excellent slate of candidates, all of whom would have served the Society well. I would also like to thank the members of the Nominating Committee Jane Camerini, Marilia Coutinho, Ell Gerson, Jane Maienschein, and Ron Rainger for their excellent Service. 2. Procedural Issues In the Course of its work, the committee encountered a number of procedural issues. In many instances we were uncertain of the proper precedents and previous practices. In others we resolved immediate procedural questions, but felt that they should be raised for discussion in Council. I state the major issues briefly in, rough order of importance. Number of candidates for key offices. 1. The committee was not fully clear whether the Society is committed to having at least two or at least three candidates for President-Elect. We acted, after consultation, on the belief that we were expected to put three candidates forward, but we have no formal record that is decisive on this matter. A number of the members felt that having the committee put forward two rather than three candidates might serve the Society better. We suggest that Council may wish to take up this issue and provide either an informal sense of the matter or a more formal guideline. 2. Similarly, there was some confusion about the desirability of putting one or two candidates for program officer forward. Part of the confusion resulted from memory slips, part of it from the difference between putting forward a "team state" of two co-program officers vs. two competing candidates. There is clear, precedent for a team slate, but no clear precedent for two candidates. Nonetheless, some committee members felt that it would be a good idea to put forward two nominees for Program Officer and I agreed to bring that position forward for discussion to the Council. In the event that there are three candidates for President, we Should formalize the procedure for the preferential ballot so that there is full clarity about the procedure for a clear-cut vote from the membership without a run-off ballot unless that should prove absolutely necessary. The Society should clarify restrictions (if any) oil Individuals standing simultaneous for two offices. There is precedent for so doing - e.g., for standing simultaneously for President and Council. The Nominating Committee recommends that standing for offices in the same election be prohibited. IF simultaneous candidacy for Council and some other position is allowed, there is provision in the By-Laws for Council to decide whether this constitutes a vacancy in a Council slot and, if so, to appoint some additional individual. I am not sure that that procedure IS sufficient to cover the situations that might arise. The Committee was unclear whether members of the Committee should be allowed to stand for office. Lindley Darden and I both hold that it is a bad idea for members of the Nominating Committee to be allowed to place their own names on a ballot for further offices. But we should have a clear-cut policy, so that individuals asked to serve on the Nominating Committee know what their agreement to serve means in this regard. We ran into a significant confusion on this issue in the present Committee. It is important to avoid such confusion in the future. Restrictions on the number of terms in office. Currently there is only one such restriction: it is that Program Officers may not succeed themselves. This is ambiguous between prohibiting standing for office twice in succession or ever again standing for that office. I recommend (and I believe that the Committee concurs) that we alter the By-Laws to prohibit the President-Elect, members of Council and the Program Officer from standing for successive terms (and that there be no other restriction on holding office). In order to avoid having a candidate for office count the ballots - a potential conflict of interest. It has been our practice for the last three cycles or so to have the Chair of the Nominating Committee receive and Count the ballots. I recommend that this be codified in some way, so that this good practice is formalized. It is the practice of the Society to circulate the list of nominees in a timely way so that the membership can make further nominations after seeing the list of nominees I suggest that this should be codified in some way to ensure that this sound practice is followed. A member of Council, correctly, called to our attention that the composition of the Nominating Committee should be approved by Council and should include, in addition to the Past President, at least one other member of Council. This requirement had not been followed for some time. We repaired the situation late in this past cycle but it should be kept in mind and adhered to in future. 1999 ELECTIONS: INFORMATION As usual in the spring before the biennial meetings, ISHPSSB is having elections for its future president, positions in the executive, and half the members of the council. This year’s ballot includes some innovations (all within the Society’s by-laws) that should be explained. Since these approaches to nominations as well as the voting and ballot counting systems have been adopted only for this election, the procedures will be reviewed at the Oaxaca meeting. A persistent problem for academic societies is that candidates for president who do not win rarely run again, either for president or any office. The Society loses their experience and energy in running its affairs. ISHPSSB tried once to address this problem by having only one candidate for president, but some members felt this approach was not democratic and the council decided not to continue it. In these elections two other approaches are being tried:
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