Slating - yea or nay?

[emb021]

The benefits of having a Nominating Committee put forth a complete slate of candidates, is that you are assured that you do, in fact, have a complete slate.

Ideally, the NomCom should be a small group who should look at all possible candidates (ie, all who are eligable in the group) and decide who they think would be best for the org, AND check to ensure that the proposed candidate is willing to run.

Keep in mind that that is the ideal. The NomCom is not omnipoten. There may be other good candidates out there they are just no aware of. And there is always the issue that the NomCom may NOT select the right people, but fall victim to an 'old boys' network attitude.

As noted, once the NomCom reports the slate, nominations from the floor (ie the whole group) should be allowed. This ensure that other candidates who do want to run, who may have been overlooked by the NomCom, can be considered. One of the worse things your org can do is deny this and just elect the whole slate as a group, as if the NomCom is the group that picks your new officers and the group just 'approves' this.


Also, if your group uses Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised as their parliamentary authority, you are not IN ANYWAY required to use a NomCom. An organization is always free to do things the way they want. RONR is always below your Bylaws and Special Rules of Order. (I'm a parliamentarian, btw)

[ISUKappa]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Bumping because I wanted to know what role (if any) advisors play in slating potential officers? I didn't want to make any assumptions based on recent posts I've read.

When I was the CCA, I also advised the Nominating Committee. I would usually not give personal input on the individual who was being discussed for a certain position unless I had worked with her in a previous advisory role, but I would say what the responsibilities of the various officer positions were and (IME) what type of personality would be a good fit for that position. The Nominating Chair and her committee always made the final decision and they generally did a good job matching women to officer positions, even if it wasn't always the one they were "running" for.

An adviser is required to be present at all NomCom meetings.

[emb021]

Originally Posted by ISUKappa

When I was the CCA, I also advised the Nominating Committee. I would usually not give personal input on the individual who was being discussed for a certain position unless I had worked with her in a previous advisory role, but I would say what the responsibilities of the various officer positions were and (IME) what type of personality would be a good fit for that position. The Nominating Chair and her committee always made the final decision.

An adviser is required to be present at all NomCom meetings.

As a chapter advisor, I'd agree on this, tho my chapter doesn't use a NomCom.

Also, I advise that atleast one advisor be present during elections, and would be a good choice to be a teller for the elections, to ensure fairness.

[OneHeartOneWay]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Bumping because I wanted to know what role (if any) advisors play in slating potential officers? I didn't want to make any assumptions based on recent posts I've read.

WIthout saying too much, the slate (put together by the women graduating) must be approved by the local advisors and the province advisor. Additionally, an advisor must be present at the slating meeting and elections. Each woman in the chapter has the opportunity to complete a "straw ballot" (how she would slate for each office) which the seniors consider in making the slate, along with letters of interest from chapter members. Nominations are also taken from the floor, and a sister may accept even if she is on the senior slate in another position.

I think the slating/nomination process works well for our women.

[SmartBlondeGPhB]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Bumping because I wanted to know what role (if any) advisors play in slating potential officers? I didn't want to make any assumptions based on recent posts I've read.

In terms of us, the advisors make sure the process is run according to the procedures and they approve the slate.

[BetaAST1899]

Our chapter has a NomCom that does slating...the Elections chair lets us know who they've slated prior to voting and discussion, because those running for that office aren't allowed in the room during that time.

[AOII Angel]

I don't think that AOII's process for slating is secret...just the discussions entailed. We divide our members into groups according to class (in school not AOII...so a new initiate with 90 class hours would be grouped with the Juniors not the freshman,etc.) Each of these groups produce a slate of nominees. These slates go to the Nominating committee which looks at the class slates and any interest letters submitted by members to determine the official slate. Often we can't use the slate because women are nominated for more than one office and nominations from the floor must be entertained. It usually works out well. All the advisers do in this process is count votes and make sure that the rules are followed.

[fantASTic]

Eh. I find that slating often involves the sacrificial lamb - if you like everyone slated except for ONE person, who you know will do a terrible job, you still pass the slate because no one wants to be there for hours and hours because of one position. Then you end up with someone who is NOT suited for their position..and nothing you can do about it.

[speedsters]

Our chapter is like lilzetakitten's and I like slate. When selecting a the slate committee, you know you are putting the chapter's future in these women's hands and they usually pick the right women for the positions. Though every year slate never gets passed on the first try, its funny how we end up having 4 hour elections and maybe only 1 person has changed.

I think it make sense to have a slate committee who overviews all the applications and then conducts interviews, rather than the whole chapter, so it doesn't end up being a popularity contest.

[33girl]

I think a lot of it also depends on the size of the chapter. If you have 150 people, slating is the way to go. If you have 30 people, all of whom know each other and each person's skills pretty well, the amount of work and preparation can be a little ridiculous.

[honeychile]

When I was an active, we had a nominating committee plus nominations from the floor. To this day there is one sister who doesn't speak to me because I won "her" office.

Now, we have a very different system, which includes interviews with the Advisors. It works SO much better, there isn't as much friction, and the officers seem so much more together.

[LAblondeGPhi]

Wow, I'm mixed on this. I've seen the slating process go both ways. One thing I didn't like was how slating can discourage women from campaigning... in the good sense. In my chapter, it was kind of taboo to openly say that you wanted an exec position, so people would have a tendancy to talk about who they think might be a good choice, and then there's a wave of sentiment that makes a person practically the officer-elect before nom comm or slating.

Some positions require a lot of thought and planning, and I think it'd be useful to know which women actually have ideas and a vision for their time in that office. Sometimes a woman is thrown into a "runner-up" position because nom comm feels they should throw her a bone when she didn't get another position she really wanted.

[RU OX Alum]

i think it would depend on the size of the group involved

my chapter never had more than 35 people total, so it wouldn't work, if you wanted something for just three people to decide that

Now there are chapters that take about 35 pledges every year/semester, so I would even know how they would begin to do anything as far as voting is concerned.

[CrackerBarrel]

Originally Posted by RU OX Alum

i think it would depend on the size of the group involved

my chapter never had more than 35 people total, so it wouldn't work, if you wanted something for just three people to decide that

Now there are chapters that take about 35 pledges every year/semester, so I would even know how they would begin to do anything as far as voting is concerned.

We're a 150 member chapter and do all voting with only nominations from the floor. You can talk to people who have had the position before and hope they nominate you or just ask someone to nominate you, but don't nominate yourself or you'll get laughed at and lose.

We have a round to talk about how would do the best job and why while the people running are out of the room, then we vote. Always seems to work out well.

[RU OX Alum]

Originally Posted by CrackerBarrel

We're a 150 member chapter and do all voting with only nominations from the floor. You can talk to people who have had the position before and hope they nominate you or just ask someone to nominate you, but don't nominate yourself or you'll get laughed at and lose.

We have a round to talk about how would do the best job and why while the people running are out of the room, then we vote. Always seems to work out well.

cool

that's actually pretty much what we did