Since its first election, the ESIP Federation has relied on its members as a whole to nominate candidates for officer positions. Members have been generally reluctant to self-nominate, and often too busy to get nominations for all the positions by the deadlines, leaving staff to hustle last-minute nominations for Federation leadership openings.
As the Federation grows in numbers and diversity, the time has come for a more guided approach to nominations. The proposed nominations committee, to selected by the President and approved by the Executive Committee, will be tasked to provide a core set of nominations that cover all of the positions open for election. ESIP Federation members will still be able to nominate candidates for any and all positions, using the existing bylaw mechanism.
The goal of the nominations committee is to find the best candidates for each of the elected officer jobs. With so many new members, and with new leadership emerging from cluster and committee chairs, the nominations committee will need to look broadly at the whole ESIP membership assembly. The proposed bylaw changes are designed to create the nominations committee. This committee will also be guided by a short policy document, to be drafted and approved by the ExCom, which will provide the logic and vision for their decisions.
Again, each ESIP member will still be able to make nominations for any open position. Please feel free to add your own discussion points to the wiki:
http://wiki.esipfed.org/index.php/Nomination_Committee_Discussion