Committee Articles
Report from the Nominations and Elections Committee
Submitted by Jim Swanson, Chair
The Nominations and Elections committee met March 23rd at the RMASFAA Board of Directors meeting in Denver to discuss names of individuals who would be best considered for the positions of elected association officers in 2002-03. The committee developed a list of names from individuals who submitted the RMASFAA Nominations for Elected Officer Form and input from the various state presidents. From that list of names, the committee prioritized the best possible candidates to serve the association keeping in mind state, gender, ethnic, and sector representation.
For the next few weeks, the Chair of the Nominations and Elections Committee personally contacted individuals on the prioritized list to determine their interest in running for elected office. From those conversations, a slate of candidates was established.
President-elect
Brenda Sebastian, Montana State University College of Technology
Mary Sommers, University of Nebraska - Kearney
Vice President
Julie Cooper, Johnson County Community College (KS)
Rosie Jamison, Dakota State University (SD)
Secretary
Jacque Burns, Central Wyoming College
Penny James, Western Nebraska Community College
Associate Member Delegate
Keith Carparelli, Student Assistance Foundation of Montana
Teena Cooper, Colorado Servicing Consortium
The Chair of the Nominations and Elections Committee worked closely with representatives of ATAC to re-establish procedures developed by past chairs of the committee to conduct the election via the Internet. The mechanism to vote was tested and became "live" to the designated voting RMASFAA member the first week of May. E-mails were sent to the designated voting representative informing them of the electronic election process. Individuals with e-mails, which were "returned to sender" due to invalid addresses were contacted by phone and new e-mail addresses were established. The electronic voting was operative for 30 days as designated by the associations Policy and Procedures Manual.
Approximately a week before the closing of the election, reminder e-mails were sent to those who had not voted urging them to cast their votes.
On June 4th when the elections were officially closed, 179 out of a possible 249 eligible voters cast their votes for the next RMASFAA elected officers. This is a wonderful 72% participation rate. Definitely every vote cast counted, as many races were very close.
In accordance with the association's policy and procedures, there were two RMASFAA members present to validate the results of the election. Sharon Kienow, RMASFAA Treasurer, who happened to be on the Colorado College campus for the RMASFAA Summer Institute, and myself viewed the final tally of the election results.
We are pleased to announce the results of the election of RMASFAA Officers for 2002-03.
President-elect
Mary Sommers
Director of Financial Aid
University of Nebraska - Kearney
Vice President
Rosie Jamison
Director of Financial Aid and Enrollment Services Leader
Dakota State University (SD)
Secretary
Penny James
Director of Financial Aid
Western Nebraska Community College
Associate Member Representative
Teena Cooper
Executive Administrator - School and Lender Relations
Colorado Servicing Consortium
All individuals on the slate were contacted by phone call and informed of the results of the election. The membership then was notified via the RMASFAA List Serve on June 13th.
I want to thank all the candidates who graciously offered their names for nominations of elected offices. Thank you to the members of the Nominations and Elections committee for their time and effort in establishing a slate of nominations. It was a very solid slate and I am confident the association would have been in good hands regardless of the outcome of the election. And thank you for to the membership for their dedication and strong participation in the election process. I look forward to working with the new Board of Directors in the coming year.
|
|
