REPORT OF THE NATIONAL ELECTIONS COMMITTEE
Presented to the 99th Annual General Meeting
The PIPSC membership is canvassed for volunteers for committee work. Each year, the Elections Committee Chair and the committee members are appointed by the PIPSC Board of Directors from volunteers that indicate their interest. The Committee conducts National Elections to positions on the Board (By-Law 17.3.2) and, from time-to-time, may conduct Constituent Body elections (By-Law 17.3.2.1). The Committee will also hear, investigate and rule on complaints received relevant to elections that it is conducting.
The Elections Committee is conducting the 2018 National Elections to Executive Officer and Regional Director positions on the PIPSC Board of Directors. That election closes at 12:00 p.m. (noon) EDT on November 2, 2018. The election results will be announced as the last item of business at the 2018 AGM on November 3, 2018.
The Elections Committee introduced candidate video biographical sketches in the 2018 elections to the Board. There were 37 candidates to the various positions up for election. Only two (2) candidates opted to submit a video biographical sketch. The other thirty-five (35) were written. The Elections Committee will be evaluating the use of video and would sincerely like to hear your opinion. Please note the contact email address towards the end of this report.
In addition to conducting the elections to the Board, the Elections Committee was requested to conduct Group National Executive elections for the AFS, AV and the SUN-RT Groups. Those elections were successfully conducted.
The Elections Committee communicates regularly using telephone and email messaging. At the time of writing this report, we met four (4) times and, unless more meetings are warranted, we will meet a 5th time for the processing of results:
- March 3, 2018 - PIPSC Headquarters
- April 17, 2018 – teleconference
- June 23, 2018 – PIPSC Headquarters
- August 11, 2018 – PIPSC Headquarters
- November 2-3, 2018 – PIPSC Headquarters
Our work includes recommending an elections timetable, developing Elections Campaign Administrative Procedures, finalizing elections related documents, issuing the Call for Nominations/Notice of Elections, reviewing candidate biographical sketches and investigating complaints.
Members of the Elections Committee, cooperating with PIPSC staff, developed elections awareness email messages, buttons and posters – all efforts to increase voter participation. The Elections Committee is always looking for innovative ideas to increase member participation in National elections. We are interested in identifying the barriers to participation as our goal is to increase voter turnout. If you have thoughts, ideas, suggestions as to what the barriers are and/or how we might be able to increase voter participation then we want to hear from you.
You can contact the Elections Committee at: elect_cmt@pipsc.ca. (note the ‘underscore’ character between ‘elect’ and ‘cmt’).
The 2018 Elections Committee: Tim Azab, Gordon Hiltz, Jean Laberge, Christine Lemay, James McMillan (Chair), Stephan Moushian and Patrick Provost. Staff resources are Jo-Ann Foster, Lise Guindon and Eddie Gillis (COO & Executive Secretary) or Patrizia Campanella (Senior Advisor to the COO & Executive Secretary).
If you have the time and are interested, please consider putting your name forward to join the 2019 Elections Committee when the call for volunteers is published in the fall of 2018.
Finally, successful elections depend on volunteers to make the elections happen. I want to thank our great volunteers. Additionally, PIPSC staff are an amazing resource to our committee and, every day, they make our volunteer work easier and enjoyable. I want to sincerely thank the PIPSC staff that help us. You know who you are!
Respectfully submitted,
Jim McMillan
Chair, Elections Committee