This fall, ARRL members in the Central, Hudson, New England, Northwestern and Roanoke Divisions will have the opportunity to choose a Director and a Vice Director for a three year term that starts January 1, 2013. Beginning in 2012, ARRL members in Divisions where there are contested elections will be able to vote electronically. Members with valid e-mail addresses in their membership profiles will be sent instructions on how to vote by e-mail; members without e-mail addresses, or whose emails bounce, or who request a paper ballot, will be sent a ballot by postal mail as in the past.

The ARRL is governed by its Board of Directors. A voting Director is chosen by ballot by the full (licensed) members in each of the 15 ARRL divisions. Vice Directors -- who serve in the absence of the Director from a Board meeting and succeed to the position of Director should a vacancy occur -- are chosen at the same time. Elections are held in five divisions per year. It only takes 10 full members in a division to nominate a candidate for either office.

The incumbent Directors and Vice Directors, respectively, in the five Divisions in which elections will be held this year are:

• Central: George R. Isely, W9GIG, and Kermit Carlson, W9XA
• Hudson: Joyce Birmingham, KA2ANF, and William Hudzik, W2UDT
• New England: Tom Frenaye, K1KI, and Mike Raisbeck, K1TWF
• Northwestern: Jim Fenstermaker, K9JF, and Grant Hopper, KB7WSD
• Roanoke: Dennis Bodson, W4PWF, and Dr James Boehner, N2ZZ

Qualifications

The eligibility of nominees for the positions of ARRL Director and Vice Director will be reviewed by the Ethics and Elections Committee, composed of three Directors not subject to election. This year, Dakota Division Director Greg Widin, K0GW (chair), Pacific Division Director Bob Vallio, W6RGG, and Atlantic Division Director Bill Edgar, N3LLR, serve on the Ethics and Elections Committee. A nominee must be at least 21 years old and must have been licensed and a full member of the ARRL for a continuous term of at least four years immediately preceding nomination. Each nominee must provide information concerning his or her employment, ownership and investment interests, as well as other financial arrangements so the Committee can determine whether the nominee has a pervasive and continuing conflict of interest that would render him or her ineligible to serve (see Article 12 of the ARRL Articles of Association and Bylaw 45 of the ARRL Bylaws). The qualifications for Director and Vice Director are identical. All the powers of the Director are transferred to the Vice Director in the event of the Director’s death, resignation, recall, removal outside the division or inability to serve.

Nomination Procedure

• Step 1: Obtain official nominating petition forms -- Any full member residing in a Division where there is an election may request an official nominating petition package. The request must reach the ARRL Secretary no later than noon EDT on Friday, August 2012. If you are seriously considering running or nominating someone to run, don’t wait until the last minute to request the forms; the deadline for submitting a completed petition form is just one week later.
• Step 2: Obtain signatures and complete questionnaire -- Only the official form may be used. The petition has two sides. To be valid, a nominating petition must name the candidate and must bear the signatures of 10 full members of the Division. The candidate must complete the other side, providing the information required to determine eligibility, certifying its accuracy, and agreeing to assume the office if elected.
• Step 3: Submit petition form -- The completed form must reach the Secretary no later than noon EDT on Friday, August 17, 2012. The submission may be made by facsimile or electronic transmission of images (such as a PDF or JPEG attachment to an e-mail), provided that upon request, the original documents are received by the Secretary within seven days of the request. A person who is nominated for both Director and Vice Director may choose to decline the nomination for Director; otherwise the nomination for Director will stand and that for Vice Director will be void.

On Monday, August 20, 2012, the Secretary will notify each candidate of the name and call sign of each other candidate for the same office. Candidates then will have until Friday, August 31, 2012 to submit photographs and a 300 word statement, if they desire these to accompany the ballot, in accordance with instructions that will be supplied.

Balloting

If there is only one eligible candidate for an office, he or she will be declared elected by the Ethics and Elections Committee. If there is more than one eligible candidate for an office, the full members in that division who are in good standing as of September 10, 2012 will have the opportunity to cast ballots. Balloting will begin no later than October 1, 2012 and will conclude at noon (EST) Friday, November 16, 2012. The candidate receiving the most votes will be declared the winner.

Members who are eligible to vote and for whom the ARRL has a valid e-mail address will be sent instructions on how to vote electronically. All other members who are eligible to vote will receive ballots by USPS. The election will be conducted by Survey & Ballot Systems of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, which has more than 20 years of experience with association elections. Whether cast electronically or on paper, all votes will be by secret ballot. A representative of the Ethics and Elections Committee will be present to observe the tabulation of results.

Absentee Ballots

A full member who is residing temporarily outside his or her home Division, including overseas, may arrange to vote in the home Division by notifying the Secretary prior to September 10, 2012, giving their current mailing address as reflected in the ARRL membership records (such as their QST mailing address) and the reason why another Division is considered home. Members with overseas military addresses should take special note of this provision; in the absence of information received to the contrary, ballots will be sent to them based on their postal addresses.