Friday, August 6, 2010

NBUA Board of Directors Election, Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Call for Candidate Submissions

By Michael Brancheau & Gary Coy
2010 Election Committee Co-Chairman

Once again it is time to announce to the 200 plus members of NBUA that elections for seats on the Board of Directors will be coming up soon.  We ask that everyone please read this article in its entirety (it’s really good!) and ask yourself if you have the desire, time, interest, and qualifications to serve as a Director.

All the mundane details of how and when and where will be addressed at the end of this article.  As for now, let’s look at offering assistance to you the member, in looking at the attributes and requirements needed to successfully serve on the NBUA Board of Directors.

TIME:  The most important of all requirements is time.  Many members may be passionate and interested, full of ideas and caring of this Association; but are otherwise fully committed. Work, Family, and other commitments and volunteer efforts may have monopolized 100% of your time. Unless you can reprioritize your existing schedule, you will be hard pressed to serve as a Director.

What is this “time” for?  Let’s dispel immediately the idea that being a Director of NBUA means attending a meeting once a month.  Far from it.  Although many opportunities for volunteer service are available to members, it is from the nine directors that most of the 100s of necessary volunteer hours are found.

PASSION:  There are many important areas we deal with, and each is best served by persons who are passionate about this craft and their role in helping to shape it. Got passionate ideas about Training?  Methodology? Process?  How about Evaluations?  Perhaps you feel some passion for the fun components of NBUA? Our banquet, our awards, etc. If you have any ideas that you feel passionate about, that you feel would help and benefit and improve the character of NBUA, then run for seat, win, convince enough others you are right, and go for it!

UNDERSTANDING:  This means a true understanding of what the Board does and what its purpose is. Directors must be able to divest their own personal interests and look strictly to the welfare and betterment of the Association, the entire collective.  To the best of one’s ability you must represent the interests of the majority of the membership.

The 2010 Committee has a strong interest this year in seeing a large number of “representative” candidates come forward. When is the last time (if ever) there were “C” Tier or “B” Tier members serving on the Board of Directors? Please don’t misunderstand this; all Directors who have served in the many years that Gary and I have been Directors have done so unselfishly and with overall regard for the Association. Yet we see a tangible benefit to seeing a slate of candidates with some more closely able to “identify” with the majority the membership of NBUA.

The 2010 Election committee would like to see a spirited election period that includes actual discussion and debate on issues important to NBUA.  Perhaps you are a member (who has read this far) and have no interest or desire or intention to run for a Director’s seat…BUT you do have passion, and interest, in some components of what makes up our Association and what we do. You DO have ideas.  You DO talk with your colleagues in post games with discussion like “I wish we did this, or if only we did that, wouldn’t it be a good idea if this was like that?”  

You can still be involved and importantly so.  Find likeminded persons that ARE running for positions as Directors and support them!  Email your friends, make phone calls.  Get behind the people who think as you do.  This is the power of the membership of NBUA.  You the membership can direct this Association in the way you wish.

Alright!  We hear you!  “Sign me up!” you say
How to submit your name as a candidate for the 2010 Board of Directors Election.

To be eligible to submit your name for the 2010 ballot you must be a:
1. Member in good standing
2. Of high moral character

The DEADLINE for submission of your NAME for CANDIDACY is Midnight Sunday September 5.  This is also the deadline for submission of your CANDIDATE STATEMENT. It is permissible to submit your name in advance of submission of your Candidate Statement.

Candidate Statements may be up to 500 words. You may say anything you wish, however the Committee may address with you any area that seems to venture outside the realm of fair play and good taste.

In addition, there will be requested submissions by candidates in the days following the deadline relative to questions on certain topics, and responding to some member submitted questions.  Please note the word “requested”.

If you wish to have your name placed on the 2010 Election Ballot simply send an EMAIL message to:
mikebran@gmail.com

For this we only need your full name, and your years of NBUA tenure.

Candidate Statements can be submitted anytime after, up to the stated deadline.

Information on the election process, online voting, when starting, when finished, and the meeting site for the election night will be announced soon.
 
Finally, please note that for this election cycle we are going to operate in a much more “open” format.  We will regularly communicate with the membership to announce WHO has submitted for candidacy, and not wait until the deadline. We hope to be able to announce what sitting Directors, up for election, are not going to run.  Of course, sitting Directors have the same rights as all members and may submit their names up to the deadline, like any other member.  Candidate Statements, on the other hand, will only be presented to the membership at one time and after the deadline date.

Any questions you may have on any of this, the process, what it all means, the difference between obstruction and interference may be addressed, in confidence, to either of the Co-chairs.

mikebran@gmail.com
gary901c@comcast.net

Thank you for considering volunteer service to the NBUA.