ACBS elections are an opportunity for passionate members to volunteer their valuable time for a worthwhile mission. ACBS members have the annual opportunity to choose their representatives from among the nominees on the ballot.
To make the process and criteria clear for all, we are making it available below.
ACBS Bylaws Article 3: The officers of the Association shall consist of a President, President-Elect, Past-President, Secretary-Treasurer, a student representative, and four Members-at-Large of the Board of Directors. Elections for officers shall be held every year. The President, President-Elect, Past-President, and student representative shall each serve a one-year term and may not hold any other offices within the Association. The Members-at-Large shall be elected every two years. In each two-year cycle one of the Members-at-Large shall have a strong background and interest in basic science relevant to the purposes of the Association. The Secretary-Treasurer shall serve a three year term.
General Timeline
- January 9, 2024 - Call for nominations opens
- February 8, 2024 - Nomination period ends
- March 5 - 15, 2024 - Election (open for 10 days)
- Late March / Early April 2024 - Results emailed to ACBS members
Election Committee:
The Election Committee includes the Chairs of the Diversity, Membership, Developing Nations, and Training Committee, as well as the ACBS Board President, Past-President, President Elect, and Secretary-Treasurer. If the Secretary-Treasurer is running for additional office during one of the election cycles, then the past-president chooses one of the Board members who is not running for office to serve on the committee for that year.
The Election Committee screens the slate of nominees based on a number of criteria, including: their assessment of the nominee's involvement with and dedication to the Association (including previous committee/chapter/sig volunteerism); the nominee's demonstrated leadership qualities; the absence of personal, business, or financial conflicts that might interfere with their ability to focus on their duties; representation of the membership; and the absence of serious conflicts with Board members, staff, or existing policies that could lead to internal conflicts.
Restrictions on nomination:
A person can only be president once, and may not serve as president thereafter. However, a person may be nominated for president more than once should she/he/they fail to become president in an election cycle.
People can serve multiple times for the other Board positions. However, if the person wishes to run for the same position as previously held, they must wait for 2 years before running for that position again.
Only ACBS members are eligible to run for the Board.
Students who will not qualify for student status for at least 6 months of the 1 year term, are ineligible to run for the Student Representative position.
Campaigning:
ACBS does not have detailed rules about how one can campaign, but we also want the election to be fair. In an attempt to help make the election fairer, we are indicating some of the ways people have campaigned in the past. We are not suggesting that you need to campaign; people have been elected with no campaigning.
Here are some ways people in ACBS have campaigned:
- E-mail colleagues
- Have colleagues e-mail their colleagues
- Facebook or the like
There are also less obvious things such as:
- Being active on the ACBS Listservs
- Being active at ACBS in other ways that gets your name known
We have seen these methods at other organizations:
- Make a webpage where people can read about your vision
- Mail flyers
Again, we are not suggesting any of these. We simply hope that knowing that these types of things may happen will make the process fairer to all candidates.
Voting:
The Board Member election will take place in March of each year. Email notifications of the candidates, their information, and how to vote online, will be sent to all current members of ACBS. At least one reminder email will be sent. Balloting will be open for 10 days.
Members can only be elected with a majority of the votes cast. If a slate has more than 2 candidates, and no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, a run-off election of the top 2 vote recipients will immediately be held, following the election rules above. The balloting period for a run-off election is 7 days.
If there is a tie in votes between two candidates, a coin toss will determine the winner.
Board participation:
The ACBS Board’s purpose is to work with members and ACBS management to advance ACBS’ vision, provide collective wisdom and direction to ACBS, and oversee the ways that ACBS creates member value.
Business of the ACBS Board is conducted via a monthly zoom/phone call as well as during intensive meetings that take place at the World Conference.
A few example duties of Board members include sub-committee work and acting as a liaison between ACBS committees and the Board. More specific information about Board positions and duties can be found here.
Additional Information:
ACBS members can log into the website to see the attachments below. Attachments include detailed Election process steps and direction to the Election Committee about selecting candidates for the ballot, including the best predictor of a high quality board member, which is robust past service to the organization.
Learn more about why all nominees do not appear on the ballot.