2008 NAIGC Director Election Procedure

I. Purpose

A. The purpose of this procedure is to facilitate the election of a group that is best able to successfully serve and represent the NAIGC as a board of directors.

II. Procedural Considerations

A. Desirable Board Characteristics: No election procedure can guarantee that every board it is used to elect will be successful. Even so, we can exert some influence on the probability of success, by thoughtfully developing a procedure and selection criterion that facilitates desirable characteristics in the elected group. Such characteristics include:

i. Having individuals with prior experience:

ii. Having representatives who are students at NAIGC schools:

iii. Having representatives from multiple regions of the country, and

iv. Having its individuals fairly elected.

B. Simplicity: By its very nature, the election of any group of multiple people requires some amount of complication. We aim to minimize this complication as much as possible, while also maintaining fairness, and facilitating the important group characteristics we have described above.

C. Imperfection: Regardless of the procedure we choose, it will not be perfect from every perspective. Even disregarding our other considerations, it is a well-known fact that no multi-party election procedure can be “fair” based on a short list of well-motivated fairness criterion.

D. Appropriate Balance: This procedure represents an attempt to find an appropriate balance between simplicity, fairness, and the facilitation of regional representation, student representation, and directors with experience.

III. Characteristics of a Successful Board

A. In this section we try to give some justification for the characteristics we selected, and explain how our procedure addresses them.

B. Having individuals with prior experience:

i. This characteristic is essential from a business perspective. The NAIGC now has assets, along with a number of legal and financial responsibilities that go along with operating as a non-profit corporation. It cannot afford to have complete turnover in its board of directors.

ii. Our procedure facilitates this group characteristic by allowing directors the option to run for a two-year term. While this option does not guarantee that any director will choose to run for a two-year term, or that any director running for a two-year term will be elected, we believe that it has the potential to motivate our more experienced directors to serve for longer periods of time. It also allows for more transparent election process in the future, since the elections can be conducted by experienced board members who are not up for reelection.

C. Having representatives who are students at NAIGC schools:

i. Because such a large proportion of the individuals served by our organization are students at NAIGC schools, we think it would unfortunate if our board of directors were entirely comprised of non-student adults.

ii. Our procedure addresses this group characteristic by creating three board positions specifically designated for students. Any student enrolled at an NAIGC school may run for one of these positions. Designating these positions reflects our attitude that the presence of willing students on our board gives added value, regardless of their experience or professional credentials. To address the concern that there might be too few students interested in these positions, we allow one or more of these designated positions to be made available to other director candidates in the event that fewer than three students are running in the director election.

D. Having representatives from multiple regions of the country:

i. As a national organization that serves individuals and clubs who come from multiple regions of the country, and who often interact with each other only once each year, we think it would be unfortunate to exclude any single major geographical region from representation on our board of directors for a given year.

ii. Our procedure addresses this group characteristic by creating five board positions specifically designated for regional representatives from the 5 geographic regions of the country, which we will define below. These regional representatives should be affiliated with a club from the given region, and will be chosen by popular vote among all club representatives from the given region. To address the concern that a regional representative might not always be available, we allow one or more of these designated positions to be made available to other director candidates if there is no candidate for regional representative from a given region.

E. Having its individuals fairly elected:

i. This is the most important criterion for an election procedure.

ii. Our procedure addresses this criterion by keeping a large number of open director positions that can be filled by the best candidates, regardless of their student status or regional affiliation. Our procedure guarantees that a majority of the director positions will be determined entirely by a popular vote among all club representatives.

IV.Geographical Regions

A. The following regions were chosen to correspond roughly to geographical concentrations of NAIGC clubs.

i. West Region: (Anything close to California)

a) California, Oregon

ii. Southwest Region: (Anything close to Texas)

a) Texas, Louisiana

iii. Midwest Region: (West of Pennsylvania, but Northeast of Oklahoma -- Ohio to Kansas to Minnesota)

a) Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Kansas

iv. Northeast Region: (Pennsylvania, and anything further north or east.)

a) Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut

v. East Region: (South of Pennsylvania, along the east coast)

a) Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida

B. The West and Southwest Regions clearly correspond to somewhat separate geographical communities.

C. While the divisions between the Midwest, Northeast, and East regions are admittedly not as well motivated, we thought it was important to introduce a separation somewhere because otherwise we would have Florida and Minnesota in the same region. The Appalachian Mountains offer a nice separation between the Midwest and the East regions, but to continue this pattern in the Northeast would seem to require dividing the states of Pennsylvania and New York. We decided it would be easier to keep clubs in the same state together regionally, and to separate out a Northeast region from Pennsylvania, going North and East.

D. This regional system then has the added benefit of producing regions of similar geographical size and somewhat similar contributions to the NAIGC population.

V. Overview of the Election Procedure and Selection Criterion

A. The basic method of election is by a scoring system in which each club representative at the annual meeting gives a score to each director candidate, and a calculation based on these scores determines the makeup of the board.

B. At the election meeting, each club representative is given a ballot, which is used to score the candidates. It contains information for the candidates who are nominated in advance, and space for additional write-in candidates.

C. At the meeting, each candidate director (some of whom may be nominated at the meeting) has an opportunity to speak to the club representatives, and at some point is expected to provide information concerning their

i. intended method of service,

ii. intended duration of service (one term or two terms),

iii. regional affiliation (West, Southwest, Midwest, Northeast, East)

iv. school/club affiliation (if any), and

v. qualifications. (if any).

D. Each club representative can question the candidates as they speak, or after they speak, can fill out their ballot as they listen to the presentations, and will also have additional time at the end of the presentations to complete their ballots.

E. After all candidates have presented, or time has expired, the ballots are collected, and the scoring information is used to determine the directors and their terms of service.

F. The highest scored candidates (both for the designated positions and the open positions) are selected as directors, up to a total maximum of 15.

G. Out of these directors, the highest scored (to a maximum of 4) who have opted to serve two-year terms will be granted their two-term status. [Note that choosing to run for a two-term position has no effect on whether the selection procedure allows them to be a director.]

H. In subsequent years, there may be fewer open director positions, because of the two-year terms. In any case, only 4 two-year terms will be offered in a given year.

VI.Nominations

A. Each candidate shall be nominated by a representative or affiliate of a current NAIGC member club, or by a current director.

B. Candidates who are representatives or affiliates of current NAIGC member clubs, or who are current directors, may nominate themselves.

C. Advance nomination of candidates is preferred, but candidates may also be nominated at the annual meeting

D. All candidates are expected to provide a brief statement at the annual meeting, expressing their intended method of service, their intended duration of service (either one term or two terms), their regional affiliation (West, Southwest, Midwest, Northeast, East), their student/nonstudent status, and their qualifications.

E. Candidates nominated in advance are encouraged to provide a written statement containing the information above.

VII. Ballots

A. Shall include:

i. Instructions:

a) For write-in candidates, please write each candidate's name in the blank, in the order specified by the meeting moderator.

b) Please circle yes or no beside each candidate to indicate your approval or disapproval. You may also abstain by not circling anything.

c) Also, please score each candidate on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 meaning unacceptable, and 10 meaning exceptional. [Note: This scoring information will only be used to select directors in the event that fewer than 4 or more than 15 directors receive a majority of yes votes.]

ii. Voter worksheet including for each potential candidate:

a) If the director is nominated five or more days before the meeting, the ballot shall include their typed name, together with their regional affiliation and intended duration of service. The ballot will also include additional blanks for this information for write-in candidates.

b) Approve: yes / no

c) Score: 0 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10

B. One ballot shall be distributed to each club representative present at the meeting, before the election procedure begins.

VIII. Procedure:

A. The candidates nominated in advance shall speak first, in the order in which they appear on the ballot.

B. Each shall give a statement including name, affiliation, regional affiliation, intended method of service, intended duration of service, and qualifications, approximately 30 seconds, but not exceeding 2 minutes.

C. After making a statement, candidates shall face comments and questioning from the meeting attendees for one additional minute.

D. After all candidates nominated in advance have spoken, the floor will be made open to additional nominations.

E. After each nomination, the candidate shall either accept or decline the nomination, and if accepting shall follow the procedure described in items B and C above.

F. In every case, the order of speaking shall be the order in which candidates are listed (whether typed or written in) on the ballot. A moderator shall communicate the numbering of candidates using an appropriate mechanism (e.g. Projector, chalkboard, etc...).

G. After there are no more nominations, or after a motion to end the nomination procedure is adopted by a majority of eligible voting members who are present a the meeting, representatives shall be given a 5-minute recess to consult with each other and finish filling out their ballots.

H. At the end of this recess, ballots shall be collected and tallied by a designated person while the meeting continues to other items on the agenda.

I. Election results shall be tallied and announced as soon as possible, preferably before the end of the meeting.

IX. Ballot Calculation

A. Computer: A computer will be available at the meeting, for quick tallying of votes.

B. Setup: During the nomination process, and before the ballots are submitted, each candidate director's name shall be entered vertically in a column. A number or other identifier for each ballot shall be entered horizontally in a row.

C. Formulas: Formulas for calculating an approval percentage from the yes/no information, and an average score for the scoring information shall be entered in advance.

D. Approval: Immediately upon ballot collection, the yes/no information on each ballot shall be entered for each ballot, and the pre-entered formula shall be used to determine the directors whose number of “yes” votes exceeds their number of “no” votes (hereafter referred to as the “approval” criterion).

E. Second Stage: If between four and fifteen directors meet the “approval” criterion, then these will be the directors. In addition, the four highest ranked two-term directors shall be awarded two terms. In this case, the election results should be announced immediately. Otherwise, proceed to the next step.

F. Scoring: If fewer than 4 or more than 15 directors receive a majority of “yes” votes, then the scoring information from each ballot shall be entered, and the pre-entered formula shall be used to calculate the average score of each director.

G. Removal: If more that 15 directors met the “approval” criterion, those directors not receiving such approval shall be removed from contention.

H. Too few: If fewer than 4 directors were approved by the yes/no votes, then the 4 candidates with the highest average rank shall be declared directors. Cases of ties for the 4^th director position shall be determined by the election officer.

I. Too many: If more than 15 directors were approved by the yes/no votes, then the scoring information shall be used to rank the candidates. The designated director positions shall be filled to the extent possible, followed by the open positions, until a total of 15 directors have been selected. Cases of ties for the 15^th director position shall be determined by the election officer.

J. Ties: Examples of reasonable tie-breaking mechanisms: exclusion or inclusion of all tying directors as a unit, performing a reasonable calculation (pre-approved by the board before the election) based on the voting data, or using a random procedure such as a fair coin flip).

X. Records

A. The meeting minutes shall include the name and affiliation of each elected director, but not the voting data.

B. The Association shall keep on file a record of all voting data from the election – to be used in reviewing the relevance and effectiveness of the election procedure.