From the President

CAS Election Process

By Alice H. Gannon

"Do you think that candidates in CAS Board elections should be asked to provide a position statement on key issues?"

This was question #49 in the last CAS membership survey and 677 of the 961 members responding to the survey answered "yes."

A single question on a survey does not necessarily provide adequate evidence of the need for a specific change. However, the results from this question, along with other information (such as a downward trend in percent of Fellows voting to 46 percent in 1999), was viewed by the CAS's Executive Council (EC) as evidence that some changes to CAS election processes should be considered. As a result, the Task Force on the CAS Election Process was formed, chaired by John Purple, to review CAS election procedures and make recommendations to the Board. The task force studied CAS election processes for both the Board and officer positions, and while they addressed the specific issue referred to in the survey question, their analysis went well beyond that single issue.

The task force solicited member input, gathered information about the election procedures used by other organizations of professionals, and carefully considered the pros and cons of a wide variety of possible changes. They developed an extensive report and made several recommendations. You may view the report on the CAS Web Site at www.casact.org/about/reports/tfelect.htm.

The Board carefully considered those recommendations and adopted many of them, including significant expansion of the information about Board candidates to be included with the election ballot. All Fellows can expect to find this expanded information in the ballot package they will receive in September. There will be more biographical information about the candidates, if they chose to provide it. This will include such information as employment history, activities in other organizations, and awards and recognitions, which had not been provided in our previous ballot packages. Also included will be candidates' responses to two questions: "Why do you want to be a member of the CAS Board?" and "What particular qualities and experiences would you bring to the Board?"

While this and other election process decisions made by the Board are very important, I think the most important outcome of the task force's work was the realization that a significant number of CAS Fellows are not aware of many of the long-standing aspects of our election process. In particular, we discovered that many members don't know that the CAS has a very open process that makes it quite easy for any Fellow to seek office.

For example, do you know that all it takes is the signature of fifteen Fellows indicating support to get any Fellow's name on the ballot for either the Board or president-elect position? Do you know that each year in April the Nominating Committee solicits input from the members about whom to nominate for the Board and officer positions through a preferential ballot? And do you know that they receive responses from only a tiny portion of the Fellows (less than 4 percent in 1999)?

The task force recommended that more communication and education about the election process should be provided to members on a regular basis and in various forums. The Board endorsed that recommendation and directed the EC to develop an action plan for achieving this, which the EC has done. The first step, which we have now completed, was to document the election process. This "Summary of Election Process and Procedures" is now available on the Web site for all members to review. We also plan to include a presentation about the election process in the Course on Professionalism and include information in a package for all new Fellows. Other communication ideas are also being explored.

I encourage all CAS Fellows to become familiar with the CAS's election process and use it to assure that the CAS is the organization you want it to be. To quote the task force's first principle governing CAS election procedures: "Proper membership control of the CAS: The Fellows should have the opportunity to move the CAS in whatever direction they wish through election procedures and approval or disapproval of constitution and by-law changes." I am confident that the CAS's election process is consistent with that principle but it will serve us best if all Fellows understand it.

My thanks to all the members of the Task Force on the CAS Election Process: John Purple, Regina Berens, Chuck Bryan, Bill Carpenter, and Ira Kaplan.