Executive Council Nomination Slates

Dear Tau Bates:

Each Executive Council of Tau Beta Pi serves for four years. The time has now come to nominate candidates for the next Executive Council. We invite you to submit a slate of five members to stand for election by the 2009 Convention. The successful slate will take office at the end of the 2010 Convention.

The procedures for election and the responsibilities of the Executive Council are spelled out in our Constitution and Bylaws, particularly Constitution Article III, Sections 3, 4, and 5.

Any chapter or group of chapters, collegiate or alumnus, may nominate a slate of five candidates. The nominating chapter or chapters must obtain from each nominee his or her acceptance and agreement to serve actively if elected. The term of office is from the close of the Convention in 2010 to the end of the Convention in 2014. The Executive Councillors should all be able to attend the required minimum of four Council meetings each year and any additional called meetings. Councillors should also be available to attend the national Convention each fall, usually requiring five days including travel.

Executive Councillors are not compensated for their services, but they are reimbursed for expenses connected with their Tau Beta Pi work and travel.

Some items which are not Constitutionally required, but seem to be good features for a slate of candidates, are:

1) Each nominee should have a genuine interest in serving Tau Beta Pi.

2) Some members of the slate should have time, in addition to attending Council meetings and the national Convention, to make several trips per year for new-chapter inspections and installations and Spring conferences.

3) The slate should represent a cross-section of Tau Beta Pi membership by including candidates:

a) with different educational backgrounds and with their Tau Beta Pi membership in different chapters; and

b) of different professional functions and activities such as employer and employee, private and public service, in technical, management, academic, research, or other fields. Some executive experience is desirable.

__________________

October 1, 2008
Letter, To the Chapters, Continued

In accordance with Constitution Article III, Section 3, nominations of slates are to be made to the Executive Council by April 1, 2009. Nominating material should include a brief biography and photograph of each of the five nominees and should be sent to Executive Director Jim Froula for distribution to the Council.

The slates will be presented for election at the next national Convention in New Brunswick, NJ, October 7-9, 2009. This schedule provides the Executive Council-elect about one year to become familiar with the responsibilities they will accept when they take office.

We strongly encourage all nominees to attend the Convention in New Jersey next fall. Everyone at the Convention—the student delegates, national officers, and nominees — will benefit from the nominees’ presence. Although they must attend the Convention partly at their own expense, the Association will provide on-site expenses plus prorated travel expenses up to $5,000 total for all slates combined.

Please address any questions on nominating or election procedures to Jim Froula at the International Headquarters in Knoxville.

Sincerely,

Dr. Larry A. Simonson, P.E.