Ladies and Gentlemen:
The Board of Directors of the SCA currently chooses its members from a list of nominees and past directors based on commentary from the membership and its current needs. The Grand Council has drafted an 'Election Proposal'as a possible replacement of the current system, describing how the Board of Directors might be directly elected by the membership of the SCA. There are a few variants to this proposal also available as addendums. The Board would like to hear commentary on this proposal and any variants before deciding whether to implement it.
The text of this proposal and the variants can be obtained from the SCA web page at http://www.sca.org under Board of Directors. For those not internet-enabled, the proposal can be obtained from the Corporate Office by sending a SASE and a note to send back the 'Election Proposal'. Commentary on the proposal should be received by the Board of Directors at the Corporate Office by Oct 1, 1998 to be considered. Thank you.
The supporting documents are also available.
RUNNING FOR THE SCA DIRECTOR POSITIONS.
I. Who may vote.
A. Who is qualified
All persons who qualify for office under the terms of section
V.C.2.b (Eligibility for office) of the Bylaws of the SCA are
also eligible to vote in elections for Directors. These shall be
referred to as Electors.
B. Proxies prohibited
No elector may vote another elector's vote as a proxy.
C. Effectiveness date of membership.
Membership will generally be determined as of the date of the
signature on a petition. For Director elections, you must be a member
on the date ballots are mailed.
D. Who receives ballots.
Ballots will be sent to all qualified electors, in a manner
specified in V.B.
II. Who may run for the position of Director.
Anyone who qualified as an Elector, and who meets the following
criteria, may participate in an election, provided the process
described in III (Getting on the ballot) is followed.
A. Age of candidate.
A candidate must be a natural person of at least eighteen years
of age, by the date of the start of the voting period.
B. Willingness to serve.
The candidate must provide a notarized declaration of a
willingness to serve and follow the rules and regulations of the
SCA Incorporated and any modern regulations incumbent upon
Directors of the SCA. Proof of eligibility for office is
required.
C. Restrictions on previous service.
No person may serve as a Director for more than a combined total
of 6 years in any 9 year period, whether that service was
appointed or elected. No one may fill a seat (Interim Directors)
or run for election as a candidate for Director that cannot
statutorily serve the resulting term. (Service time does NOT
include the time between an election and start of term.)
D. Restrictions on removed Directors.
No one may serve as Interim Director, or stand for election as a
Director within a twelve month period from the time of a
removal or recall.
E. Restrictions on current Directors.
No currently seated Director or Interim Director may run for an
open seat whose term overlaps the one being served.
III. Getting on the ballot.
A. Endorsed Petition.
A candidate must provide a signed petition containing signatures
from at least fifty Electors who support that candidacy. Each
signature must be accompanied by a verifiable membership number, a
legible modern name, listed Kingdom of Residence, and a date of
signature. (The corporation will verify these membership numbers
as of the date signed. Illegible entries will be voided. The
Corporate Office has no more than 5 working days to void entries).
The top of each page of the petition must clearly state its
purpose.
B. Ballot statement.
Candidates may provide a statement (to accompany the election
ballot) of no more than 250 words. This is not required, but
strongly encouraged. The statement shall describe the candidates
background and reasons for candidacy. Statements will be
truncated at the 250th word.
C. Personal Information.
Candidates must provide a current mailing address, telephone
number and additional contact information to be used for all
electoral correspondence.
D. Observing the vote count.
Any candidate or designated representative may observe the ballot
counting process if the petition states a desire to do so.
IV. Ballot schedules and deadlines.
A. Candidate deadlines.
It is the responsibility of potential candidates to have all their
materials arrive at the Corporate Office on or before the
deadlines listed.
B. Elector deadlines.
Ballots mailed by Electors must be postmarked by the deadlines
listed, or they will be invalid. Ballots received more than one
week after the final deadline date will be discarded, whether or
not the postmark is valid.
C. Changes in dates.
When a listed deadline would fall on a day when the Corporate
Office would normally be closed, the deadline will automatically
be extended to the first business day following the listed
deadline.
D. The annual election schedule.
1. Deadline for submission of candidacy materials: January 15.
2. Board determines the number of open seats: before March 15.
3. Mailing of ballots by Corporate Office: March 15.
4. Receipt of ballots from Electors: April 30.
5. Votes tallied by Corporate Office: May 7.
6. Candidates notified by: May 15.
7. Deadline for candidate recount requests: May 28.
8. Deadline for recount completion and final results: June 4.
9. Board of Directors certifies the election result: June meeting.
E. Notification to the membership.
All Society publications regularly sent to sustaining members must
publish the results of the election, with vote counts, once the
Board certifies the election result. This should appear in the
next reasonably available issue.
F. Start of service.
Directors will start their terms as of the end of the last annual
quarterly Board meeting in the year of their election.
V. Electoral process.
A. Electoral terms.
Elected Director's terms are nominally for 3 years/12 regular
meetings after installation.
B. Fairness in notification.
All ballots will be sent by the same method, and on the same
date. Where the same mailing method is not possible (for example,
international mailings), all efforts will be made to send those by
a fair and equitable method.
C. Format of ballots.
All candidate lists and ballot statements (as described in III.B)
will be alphabetized by the modern surname of each candidate.
Ballot statements will not be modified, except where such
modification would be required by modern law (for example: to
remove libel or obscenity). Ballots so edited shall be clearly
marked as edited, and for what reason. Ballots shall be prepared by
the Corporate Secretary (or if that person is a person up for
election, a neutral non-Director appointed by vote of the Board.)
Candidates whose statements will be edited must be informed as
early as possible, and given a chance to submit an acceptable
statement.
D. Number of open seats.
At or before the first annual quarterly meeting before each
election, the Board will announce the number of seats open on the
ballot, and that information must appear clearly on the balloting
form. That number will match the number of Directors whose terms
are due to expire.
E. Insufficient candidates.
If the Board discovers the number of open seats equals or exceeds
the number of candidates the election becomes moot. All
candidates become Future Directors and the result is announced
immediately as if the election had concluded normally. The Board
will immediately appoint additional Future Directors to fill any
empty seats.
F. General ballot information.
The ballot shall clearly state the organization name of the SCA
Incorporated and the purpose of the ballot. Deadlines, addresses
and voting instructions must be clearly written. Qualifications
for voting, and the entire schedule for the voting process must
appear. Complete and accurate copies of ballots are valid, others
will be voided.
G. Fairness of the ballot.
The ballot must be constructed without any favoritism or
commentary that recommends or disparages any candidate. The
ballot mailing may be used to distribute unrelated or additional
Corporate information, such as questionnaires, polls or financial
statements that would not unfairly impact the balloting. When
there is doubt, no such information should be included.
H. Resolving victory, ties and close elections.
Candidates will be listed in descending order of total votes
received, and the open positions will be filled by removing names
from the top of that list. If the margin of victory for a
candidate is close, there shall be an automatic recount. Close is
defined as 50 ballots, or 1 percent of the returned ballots,
whichever is greater. Only candidates may request a recount, and
only before the deadline listed in the schedule. Ties will be
resolved by lottery conducted at the certifying Board meeting.
J. Ballot counting.
Ballot counting and verification will be supervised by the
Corporate Secretary and Registrar (or their agents), and
assisted/witnessed by at least two agents designated in advance by
the Board of Directors and any candidates or representatives
designated in III.D.
K. Electoral Method.
Electors may cast a vote in favor of as many of the candidates as
desired. Each vote counts once.
L. Restriction on electoral methods.
No other director election methods are to be used to elect
directors.
VI. Future Directors.
A candidate elected to a future open term as Director is referred to
as a Future Director.
A. Rights of an Future Director.
The time period between election and installation should be used
to train and prepare Future Directors. Future Directors shall
receive the same Director materials as current Directors, be
eligible to attend all meetings of the Board (at their own
expense), and attend closed sessions of the Board as well. They
do not have voting privileges.
B. Restrictions on a Future Director.
Future Directors may not assume any Kingdom, Corporate or Society
Office, or compete or be competed for in any competition for
office. They must leave any such offices currently held before
they may are installed as Directors. Future Directors must follow
all communications policies for Officers and Directors. Future
Directors should not autocrat Kingdom or Inter-kingdom events.
REMOVING OR REPLACING DIRECTORS OF THE SCA INCORPORATED.
I. Replacement of Directors.
If a Director does not complete a term, for whatever reason, the
remaining Directors shall unanimously appoint an Interim Director to
fill that seat. Interim Directors are seated at once.
A. Term of replacements.
Interim Directors shall serve the balance of the term of the Director
they are seated to replace.
B. Qualifications for Interim Directors.
Interim Directors must be qualified to run as candidates for
Director positions.
C. Restrictions on Interim Directors.
Interim Directors must abide by all regular Directors restrictions.
D. Sources for Interim Directors.
Since Interim Directors cannot have a training period, it is
suggested that Interim Directors be drawn from the list of Future
Directors, runner's up from the previous election, former
Directors or current and Former Society or Corporate Officers. If
circumstances dictate, however, the Board may choose as it sees
fit, within the restrictions on Potential Directors.
II. Recall of Seated Directors.
A. Procedure for notice.
Before any of the procedures from removing Director listed in
II.B (Procedures for removing Directors), may begin, the Director
in question must be notified in writing, and the same notice must
be given to the Secretary and Chairman. The notice must state the
cause. All removal attempts must be completed with four months of
the date the notice was sent, or the attempts are void and must be
discarded. Date of the notice will be date of postmark.
Signatures dated before that time will be voided.
B. Procedures for removing Directors.
1. Majority vote by the Board of Directors. Effective immediately.
2. Two thirds vote (rounded down) of the Crowns and Kingdom
Seneschals of the Laurel Kingdoms, each King, Queen and
Seneschal having one vote apiece. Effective upon notification
and verification at the Corporate Office.
3. Submission of a petition (in format like that of a Director
Candidate) signed by at least 1000 electors (only the first 400
from each Kingdom will count toward the total). This petition
is to be treated, generally, just as candidate petitions are.
Effective upon notification and verification at the Corporate
Office. Each Director must be removed by separate petition,
although the petitions may be bundled together. The author,
author's contact information and purpose of the petition must
be written at its top, so that signers can identify the petition
from others, and contact its creator.
III. Removal of the entire Board.
A. What is an emergency Board.
An emergency Board is a Board designed to prevent the SCA from
requiring intervention by the state of California, should the
regular Board become completely vacant, or reach an impasse as
defined in California Corporate Code.
B. When to create an emergency Board.
If the Board is entirely vacant, for whatever reason, or if the
Board cannot agree on Directors to bring the Board up to quorum,
all sitting Directors are automatically removed, and an emergency
Board shall be convened.
C. Who shall sit on the emergency Board.
The Corporate Officers (President, Secretary and Treasurer, see
Bylaws VII.A), and the Society Officers (Laurel Sovereign, Marshal
of the Society Minister of Arts and sciences, Chronicler,
Chancellor and Chirurgeon-General, see Corpora IV.) If any of
these persons are not qualified to be a Director (excepting the
terms of service limitations, since they shall serve a very short
time) they shall be disqualified. The chairmanship of the
emergency Board shall reside with the President, or the first
of the officers listed above that is qualified to sit on the
emergency Board.
D. Duty of the emergency Board.
The emergency Board shall meet as quickly as possible, and appoint
Interim Directors according to the regular procedures. It shall
immediately resign in favor of the new Board. This is the sole
power and duty of the emergency Board.
For more information on the SCA, see the SCA Home Page
Last changed: 3-Apr-2006