Guidelines for the EFNIL elections of the Executive Committee members

Election of a new Executive Committee, Call for candidates

According to our Constitution the Executive Committee is elected for a period of three years. The last election took place during the conference in Dublin (2009). This means that the General Assembly of this autumn in Budapest will have to elect a new Executive Committee.

The following officers have to be elected by the General Assembly:

·         President

·         Deputy President

·         (up to) four Additional Members of the Executive Committee

To qualify to stand as a candidate a person must be an official delegation member of a member organisation (this includes associate members). The new members will again be elected for a three-year term (Autumn 2012 – Autumn 2015).

Every delegation member has the right to submit his/her own candidature for one or more of the available offices and / or can submit the candidature of another delegation member of any other member organisation, including associate members. In the latter case, the Secretariat will contact the nominee in order to find out whether she or he is willing to stand as a candidate in the election.

In considering the nomination of candidates, please bear in mind the following procedures and stipulations:

·         an election will only be held in the case of competition for a post or posts; if there is no competition the nominated candidate(s) will be considered elected unanimously;

·         an election is only valid if votes are received from over half of the members of the General Assembly with a right to vote;

·         authorized voters have one vote in the election for the President and one vote in the election for the Deputy President and (up to) four in the election for the additional members;

·         an authorized voter who cannot attend the election can nominate another official delegate (in writing) to vote on his or her behalf by proxy (that person then has an additional vote);

·         the elections of the President and Deputy President will be decided by a simple majority of votes;

·         there will be a single election for the additional committee members, with the four candidates receiving the most votes being elected; [no election will be necessary if there are fewer than five candidates]

·         in the event of an election resulting in a tie which could affect the constitution of the committee, the tied candidates shall submit to a further deciding election or elections;

·         in electing the President, Deputy President and the additional members of the Executive Committee, the General Assembly must take note of the fact that the Committee should be representative of the language situation within Europe; it should take into consideration, amongst others, the following criteria:

o    an appropriate distribution between language families, regions and larger and smaller languages;

o    an appropriate distribution between male and female members;

·         the (existing) Executive Committee can submit proposals for the substitution of Committee members or for the election/nomination of a completely new Executive Committee, especially in those cases in which there are no (or not enough) candidates.

·         The General Secretary is not elected by the General Assembly as such but is appointed by the President from amongst the members of the Executive Committee and with the agreement of the Executive Committee.

A form for the submission of candidates is attached to this message. You can use this form or send an e-mail to kovacs.gabriella@nytud.hu. Do not forget to mention the full name and affiliation of the candidate and the function for which she or he is a candidate (President, Deputy President, Additional Member). Nominations have to be submitted before 31 May 2012.