Nominating Committee

I. Purpose

In accordance with the SAA Bylaws, the Nominating Committee selects a slate of candidates for the posirions of Council, Vice-President/President Elect, and the next year's Nominating Committee for membership vote.The Nominating Committee reviews the nominations and self-nominations received; encourages potential candidates to stand for election; facilitates the election process by gathering information about the slate of canidates for the SAA election communications and related events; drafts questions that candidates respond to in statements; prepares a final report and formally reports the election results at the annual business meeting..

II. Committee Selection, Size, Length of Terms

The Nominating Committee is composed of five members who serve for one year. Three members are elected each year by the membership from a slate submitted by the outgoing Nominating Committee and from any petition and write-in candidates submitted by the membership. Two of the three second-year Council members are selected by vote at the spring meeting of the Council to complete this committee. The chair of the Nominating Committee is the elected candidate with the highest number of votes. The vice president/president-elect appoints the chair of the Nominating Committee in the event of a tie for that office, according to the procedures in Bylaw 5.A.

The immediate past chair of the Nominating Committee shall serve on the Committee on the Selection of SAA Fellows for a one-year term.

III. Duties and Responsibilities

The committee selects a slate of two candidates for each of the following offices:each year;  vice president/president-elect, three members of Council, and three Nominating Committee members. Two candidates for the office of Treasurer are chosen every third year.

The SAA staff share documentation from the previous year(s) Nominating Committee with the current committee. The committee reviews the current nominations and previous nominations pool and brainstorms about additional candidates to recruit. They use or create a rubric to evaluate candidates to narrow down to the final election roster selection.  They develop the questions,that candidates respond to in their candidate staements. They organize and facilitate an Election Open House and/or other election announcements, communications, and events; 

The final slate is collaboratively determined by the committee. The final slate and list of candidate questions is delivered by the chair of the committee to the SAA CEO and President. the SAA staff handle the preparation and distribution of the ballot and arranges for the tabulation of election results by the volunteer election tabulators. The CEO infoforms each of the candidatres of the results of the election.

The chair of the committee prepares a final report and submits it to the Council.

The chair reports the election results at the following annual business meeting.

IV. Criteria for Selection of Candidates

All candidates must be Individual members of SAA at the time that the election slate is finalized.. Although no other formal criteria are listed for candidates, most committees strive for a balanced slate in terms of demographics, geographical area, types and size of candidates repositories, and professional interests. The committee may wish to use past service on the Council as a requirement for selection of vice presidential candidates, and active participation in SAA as a requirement for candidates for the Council.

Approved by the SAA Council: June 1988. 
Revised: May 2025.