WORLD ASSOCIATION FOR PERSON-CENTERED AND

EXPERIENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSELING 

 Board Election Procedure 2003 

PART A.
NECESSARY BACKGROUND INFORMATION FROM STATUTES & BYLAWS

1. Excerpts from Statutes

VI. Board

1. The Board consists of a maximum of nine persons, formed with an effort to reflect the diversity of the membership in terms of geography and theoretical approach.

2. The functions of the Board are

- to steward the Association
- to develop and propose policies to the General Assembly
- to implement the decisions and policies agreed in the General Assembly
- to manage administrative matters
- and to deal with matters which may arise between meetings of the General Assembly.

3. The tasks of the Board include:

- preparing the General Assembly
- admitting new Members who have fulfilled the membership requirements (see IV.2.)
- presenting a statement of the accounts of the last period (since the last ordinary General Assembly) and determining the budget for the next period, subject to the approval of the General Assembly
- presenting a report of its work during the last period to the General Assembly.

2. Excerpts from Bylaws

III. Voting and elections

2. After 2000 elections for the Board are done by vote of all eligible members through the means of a mailed ballot.

3. Board elections after 2000 will be coordinated by a committee appointed by the Board.

4. The Board develops a proposal for a nomination process to be proposed to and adopted by the members.

IV. Board

1. The Board Members are elected for a period of three years.

2. Re-election of a person as a member of the Board is possible not more than twice.

3. If no new Board is elected the present Board continues until the next election.

5. The following roles of the Board are assigned to specific members of the Board on decision of the Board immediately after its election:

- the chair of the Board
- the treasurer of the Association
- the secretary of the Board.

The Board determines the appropriate tasks, functions and roles needed for effective functioning of the Association. These may include:

- secretary to the members (newsletter included)
- secretary to the office (e.g. updating member lists)
- webmaster & information coordinator
- membership promotors (individual and organizational)
- contact person for external relations
- contact person for Journal
- contact person for PCE conference
 

PART B.
NOMINATION & VOTING PROCEDURE

-   The election procedure is based on our existing Statutes & Bylaws and will be carried out before the Conference & GA.
-   The nomination and voting procedure is operational for the elections of the Board in 2003 and will be presented to the General Assembly for amendment or ratification for elections thereafter.

STEPS

1. December 2002: Preparatory activities by the Board

1.1. Looking for candidates to be part of the Election Committee (separate from the Board) and appointment of them.  This Committee should exist of 3 persons.

1.2. Discussion among the Board members on who wants to stay, what tasks they prefer, and who wants to leave.

1.3. Asking organizational members for the number of members they have in their organization and for the name of their delegate.

2. Beginning of January 2003: Nominations are invited

(in a Newsletter) by the Election committee.

This invitation (also on the website) includes:

-       A survey of the procedure as a whole
-       An accompanying letter by the Chair, in which he describes the tasks, the competencies and skills needed, time required, number of Board members who are candidates for a second election, …
-       Invitation of candidates:
>     they should be paying members (preferably for 2002, and certainly for 2003 by March 15)
>   each nominee must have a proposer and one seconder who are in current paid-up membership of WAPCEPC
>     each nominee is invited (Board member nominees included) to make a statement about him/herself (max. 400 words), saying who they are and what they would be able and like to offer the Association if elected.
>    nominations must be e-mailed in attached file to elections@pce-world.org by 28 February 2003.

3. Beginning of April 2003: Voting letter to all paying members

-   Paying members: the list of members (provided by the office) who have paid either for 2002 or for 2003 (by March 15), preferably for both.
-   This voting (News)letter (also on website) will be sent by e-mail to all members having e-mail and by postal mail to the others.
-   It includes: a survey of all candidates (with their personal statement) and voting instructions.
-   Votes should be sent to the address of the Election Committee by e-mail, fax or postal mail before May 15.
-   Each paid-up member will have one vote.  Organizations will have the number of votes according to membership as laid out in the Bylaws.
-   Those nine prospective board members who receive the highest numbers of votes will be duly elected (if they received a vote of at least 33% of those who sent their votes,  individual and organizational members taken separately).

Specific issues:

Voting instructions

The members are allowed to vote for a maximum of nine out of all candidates, but they are told that they can vote for less; if they vote for more, their vote is invalid.

Confidentiality

The Committee will maintain confidentiality.  They give to the Board the number of votes on each candidate, but never who has been voting for them.

To guarantee the anonymity still more, the concrete procedure will be as follows: each member receives two sheets (with logo of WAPCEPC), one containing the names of the nominees and a possibility to tick them (without the name of the voter) and one with his/her name and address.  These two voting sheets should be the only ballot papers.  They should be sent back simultaneously either as two e-mail attachments or as two sheets (fax, postal mail).  The committee should separate the two parts before counting the votes without the names.  Both packages of sheets should be preserved until six months after the Conference & GA (in case of protest against the results).

Votes of individual and organizational members

The voting sheets of organization members should be marked and kept separately.  Those persons who have at least 33% of those voting in both separate groups of members (individual and organizational) are listed in the separate lists.  Those (a maximum of nine) with the highest average rank (on the basis of their ranks in both lists) are elected.

In case not enough members are elected, the GA can add up to 9 members.  People who were nominees for the mailed ballot can candidate again if they wish.  Again, to be elected candidates need at least 33% of the individual and organizational votes at the GA (including proxy votes).

4.  The results of the ballot will be sent to the Board before June 15

and given at the General Assembly.

-   The newly elected Board will take up its duties at the end of the Assembly.  Upon their election, the successful candidates will choose the following posts from among their number:
Chair of the Association
Treasurer of the Association
Secretary of the Board

-   Election results will be notified to the membership in the WAPCEPC Newsletter of September 2003.