Everything You Need to Know: AIAS Chapter Elections

• Write an Elections Procedure into your bylaws if one isn’t there already! (see AIAS Model Chapter Bylaws for reference)
  • Make sure to identify and publish the requirements to become a candidate!  (examples: Active member of AIAS (Dues-paying member for at least one year, GPA Requirement, Must have served on board to run for President “Unless there are fewer than 2 candidates;” Letter of peer support
  • Make sure to identify and publish the requirements for who can vote!
  • Not all positions and volunteers are elected, but the procedures for Appointed Positions should also be included in the Bylaws
    • Application process
    • Identify these positions – freshman reps., etc.
• Prioritize a start date and end date of the elections process where most students will be free in order to maximize attendance/voting 
  • Check calendars for classes and other orgs, especially other architecture student organizations.
• Identify and ask people who can support the elections process at each stage and inform them of their role
  • These people should be as unbiased and third party as possible – see step 9
• Make clear what the process will be to the members
  • Explain whether it will be virtual, hybrid, or in person
  • Where they can find candidate information
  • Method of voting
• Create Elections Guidelines (or questionnaire or form) that includes pertinent information for running for office (see AIAS Elections Guidelines for reference)

• Publish Elections Guidelines (or questionnaire or form) 
  • Disclose the duties of each position and possibly descriptions of what skills/ available time a candidate should have 
  • Establish how member can apply for a position
• You should announce the election at general body meetings in advance as a heads-up for the general body
  • You could hold a pre-elections meeting. During this meeting, the current board should provide details of the elections process as well as go over responsibilities of each position.
  • List and have specific amounts of time of notice before elections/candidate deadlines i.e. 1 or 2 weeks
• Employ methods of advertising about the elections in general
  • Social media campaigns/announcements
    • E-mail members as well for ones who are not active on social media
  • Posters/flyers
• Also employ methods of advertising to pull in candidates
  • Intentional Shoulder Tapping from those already in the position
    • Encourage students considering running for a position to reach out to students holding the positions and discuss any questions that they have
  • Possibly hold an Open Executive Board Meeting for potential board members to come and observe

Savannah College of Art and Design: Our chapter is medium sized, around 50 members, each year and holds general body meetings bi-weekly. We first announce elections during our second general body meeting of the winter quarter and give an overview of the elections timeline and positions. Our Elections Guidelines are published and e-mailed to the membership and faculty to distribute to interested students immediately after that GBM. For in person learning, we go around to each studio making a small announcement about elections and how to get more information. During virtual learning, we e-mailed membership, made social media posts, announcements on slack, and asked faculty to make announcements during their studios. We recorded the elections general body meeting and published it onto our YouTube channel for anyone to gain access and watch if they were unable to attend.

• Instruct Candidates to Apply: The best way to get information about candidates is to have them all fill out the same information and then share that with the membership – like we do at the AIAS! (examples:)
  • This information could include a questionnaire regarding leadership ability/experience should be sent out to candidates or included in the Application to Run. This questionnaire should avoid AIAS heavy questions in order to allow candidates from all backgrounds and experiences to be considered equally. 
  • In addition to or instead of a questionnaire, potential candidates could also submit resumes.
  • Include a statement for them to sign stating that they understand the responsibilities of their chosen position(s). This may lead to or emulate Chapter Officer contracts.
  • If including gender options on the application, make sure to include non-binary as a gender option. Be sure to ask for preferred pronouns!
  • Candidates should be required to include recommendations from peers about AIAS involvement and “behavior” as a student
• Collect and distribute candidate applications in accordance with guidelines
  • The compiled packets can be made available within the school or distributed online – or both! Online applications are most convenient to view, and could be posted to a website or sent via email.
  • Frequently remind the membership to review the packets, especially just before important election deadlines
• If elections are not virtual, Candidates should still have the opportunity to participate virtually if needed. If elections are fully online, speeches and other campaign opportunities can also be distributed that way, and even referenced by link on the webpage where votes are cast. Methods for this include:
  • Accessible Google Folders organized by position
  • Scheduled Instagram posts
  • Live video call, speeches, and Q&A allow opportunities for members to send questions to candidates, and are more easily recorded for later sharing. Be sure to consider technical difficulties if going live, and the availability of voters.
• Important to make sure everyone who may vote has access!

Oklahoma State University: Candidate questionnaires are pinned up in the school so that all students have access to them. These packets contain general information and questions about ideas, experience, ect. This is also used to catch the attention of students who might not know that an AIAS election is going on. In last year’s case, speeches were posted online for viewing as well.

• Confirm plans for campaigning 
  • Define the time frame
  • Planned activities – panels, social events, etc.
  • What is not allowed – and other disciplinary procedures
  • Consider what kinds of campaigning are allowed or not allowed
    • Especially in regard to school rules
    • Also especially in regard to what is reasonable and ethical
• The Chapter campaigning for all candidates
  • You should choose to use a variety of campaigning methods so that the student outreach and participation is the greatest possible
  • Chapter posting of candidates on social media
    • Fairness to all candidates is important
  • Involving faculty and admin in the process
    • Packets and information collected should be distributed to faculty for informative purposes, but their involvement elsewhere in the election process is not by any means mandatory
• Candidates campaigning for themselves
  • Variety of campaigning methods that are useful without being obnoxious
    • Social media / probably not copious emails / 1:1 conversations when you can / flyers (with a count limit, i.e. 10)?
  • Can be hard to define what constitutes campaigning vs just talking with friends…
    • Consult your bylaws! Be specific
    • Know that there is a limit to what rules can outline, and anything beyond those rules is out of the hands of the Elections Chair
  • Conduct yourself ethically at all times
• Speeches & Q/A’s – Each candidate should be given the opportunity to give a speech about how they plan to contribute to their chapter by being in the position.
  • Make sure speeches are well-advertised and well-broadcasted
  • It is beneficial to have each candidate answer a series of questions while the other steps out of the room so that each response is unique and not a spin-off of what the previous person said. 
  • It is beneficial to place a time limit on speeches to ensure that each candidate has a chance to be heard before people are “worn out”.
    • Ex: 2 min speech, 5 min Q&A
    • Consider having more time for speech and more robust Q&A for President and Vice President candidates
  • Candidates abroad? Chapters can have an option to record speeches and have them played during a meeting
    • Written speech could be sent and read on behalf of candidate
    • Easier than ever with virtual! 
    • If time differences prevent live virtual meetings, chapters can host a timed window for a Q+A session via online chat.

Kent State University: Our chapter usually has around 50 members. We collect a graphic along with the packets when candidates apply to run and those get posted on our social media to announce the candidates. After that, the only campaigning is election night when we have speeches and the Q&A for members. Campaigning outside of this can get you disqualified to run for a board position.

1. Confirm the voting logistics as things may have changed since your best laid plans may have changed. For a successful voting process, each chapter should choose a method (online or in-person) that would work for your chapter
   1. A virtual election could look like this:
      1. GovComm recommends that you use an online method because it’s the easiest way to tally votes accurately
         1. Ensure online method does not reveal # of votes per candidate
         2. Specific recommendations on platform
            1. https://electionrunner.com/ 
            2. https://electionbuddy.com/
            3. Google Forms
               1. If you do use google forms be aware of future boards accessing the voting results after elections are over.
            4. https://www.surveymonkey.com/
   2. A hybrid election could look like this:
      1. Pre-recorded videos/zoom meeting + in person voting at a later date
      2. In person meeting with candidates + online voting
      3. Allowing both in person and online voting, then combining for a total tally.
   3. An in-person election could look like this:
      1. Speeches given at a general body meeting
      2. Open campaigning for a certain period + a “meet the candidates night” hosted by the Chapter
      3. In person voting at a supervised ballot box during another general body meeting
2. Update voters on who can vote
   1. Prepare a list, and make available the methods to being eligible to vote
   2. You should make it clear in advance that only active/current members are eligible to vote. 
   3. Or define how votes are weighed/who can vote
3. Troubleshooting and not-so-rare occurrences: Make sure it’s written in the bylaws / elections procedures!
   1. Candidates getting elected to two positions
      1. You should establish ahead of time, and during the process of applications, about what you will do when a candidate gets voted in for two (2) positions since they should only accept one (1)
   2. Ties
      1. Ties mean that a re-vote has to take place.
   3. Runoff!
      1. <sarah insert how runoffs work here>
   4. Ranking
      1. This is an option, candidates rank their top three positions they are interested in, so if they get voted into more than one, they will be elected to their first choice position while the person with the second number of highest votes gets the other position. 
      2. Speeches can be made only on first choice positions potentially
4. Execute the vote!
5. Tallying of the votes
   1. Faculty advisor double check votes

Oklahoma State University: Our chapter is medium, with about 60-80 people regularly attending general body meetings. We have used several methods for voting in the past few years including Survey Monkey, GroupMe polls and Google Forms. Since the AIAS at Oklahoma State functions as something like a student government for the School of Architecture we allow all students in the School to vote, regardless of whether they are a registered AIAS member. Since our school is fairly small and we all know each other well we are usually able to speak to the candidates before the election to determine the order in which each position will be elected based on the preferences of those who are running for more than one position; if they prefer Treasurer over Social Chair and are running for both, the Treasurer election is held first. We ask all candidates for the position for which we are currently voting to wait in the hall, then each candidate comes in to give a one-minute speech (President, VP and FBD Director candidates get two minutes). After all speeches are finished the floor is open to discussion, with each speaker getting 30 seconds to make non-biased observations about the work and involvement history of the candidates, and the discussion period ends after two minutes. When discussion is over voting opens, then the candidates are invited back in for the reveal. It’s definitely a more sensitive option to reveal the results to the candidates privately and then inform the general body of the results later on, which is probably what we’ll do from now on.

Virtual – https://www.aias.org/how-to-conduct-a-virtual-election/

University of Kansas: We have a medium-sized chapter with a handful of attendees at our meetings. Our most recent election was held virtually, so we announced the candidates at our virtual meetings, and then voted online using Google Forms. I find that using an online platform is easiest since it is the most accessible to everyone and provides more accuracy than hand-tallying votes when caution is used to ensure no one votes more than once. When it comes time to run for a position, the KU chapter allows applicants to rank their top three (3) positions which answers the question of what happens if someone is voted into two (2) positions—they will get their preferred position given that they received the most votes for that position. In addition, the KU chapter allows for only paid and active AIAS members to vote in the elections. Once all the votes are in, we forward the results to our faculty advisor who reviews the tallys, and then delivers the results back to the chapter board. From there, the board makes a formal announcement in the next chapter meeting.

• You should inform your candidates of the results prior to announcing the results to the general membership
  • If there’s a long break between the vote and the announcement, a confidentiality clause can be embedded in the officer contract.
  • GovComm recommends sharing the news as quickly and reasonably as possible.
• A statement should be given at your next general body meeting/event following the election to inform the body of the elections results.
  • You could turn the big announcement into a party – virtual or otherwise
  • A statement could also be made to the entire school or college
• In addition, you should make an announcement of the winners on social media platforms and anywhere else your chapter has an online presence. 
• You should consider establishing a delegate to whom members can reach out if they feel like there is an inaccuracy in the votes counted.
  • The faculty advisor or elections chair can act as an impartial party to mediate voting disputes.
  • There should be a limited window on when those concerns are accepted.

Virginia Tech: We have a medium sized chapter, but functions more like a small chapter. After an election, the newly elected individuals and un-elected running mates are informed through electronic communication. VT AIAS uses several methods to inform the general body simultaneously including an email update and social media posts including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The social media posts aid in informing not only AIAS members, but the surrounding community and supporting members. Soon after the announcement, sometimes the candidates will have a short social media post or video introducing themselves in their new position.  

Holy Spirit University of Kaslik: Our chapter is small-sized: around 20 to 30 members, this year we accomplished the elections virtually, and we were voting on a website where you can see directly the number of votes for each nominated person. So, for that, the announcements obviously were published on spot, and after that, the winner has to share his thoughts and goals for the year. Following this, we shared a post on Instagram for each member of the new board introducing himself again in a small friendly paragraph. N.b: Also, just before starting the elections candidates had to introduce themselves.

• Fill out the Update Your Chapter Information Form
  • https://www.aias.org/membership/update-chapter-information/
  • This is extremely important for both your chapter and for the AIAS national office to ensure a smooth transition of information between boards.
• Officer Contracts – Have the candidates sign another statement, this one stating that they will complete the responsibilities of the position to the best of their ability and that they understand the consequences of not doing so.
• Complete Chapter Transition Checklist
  • The transition of power should be a smooth process. You should already have done this in the past, but continue to ensure that all information is passed down (emails, passwords, credit cards, other accounts) and that the materials needed to successfully run the position are given to the necessary individuals.
  • Generating Transition Packets are an excellent way to help with this. 
  • Make sure all contact info is shared
• Transition Period
  • Consider inviting the incoming board to outgoing board meetings and things of that nature to observe and learn
  • The longer the transition the better
    • Think about this while planning when your elections will take place!
• Introduce the new officers to people they need to know: 
  • Ie: The head of the school or the person in charge of school bank accounts.
  • Introduce them to your Quad Director.
  • Show them the basics of the CoP Drive.
  • FBD – clients, engineers, community partners.
• Have a Board Retreat!
  • The incoming and outgoing board can meet at the end of the transition period to finalize the transition period. 
  • You can even board retreat with other Chapters in your Quad/Region
• Register for Grassroots!

Georgia Institute of Technology: Our chapter is a small chapter with 15-20 members each year. Officer terms expire at the end of the school year and we hold our elections in the middle of the spring semester and election results are announced soon after the elections. This allows the incoming Executive Board members to have a few weeks during which they can observe the Executive Board operations, learn the ropes, meet the Quad Director, and become acquainted with any partners the chapter may have. Outgoing officers also maintain and update a transition guide that outlines the Executive Board’s file organization, account information, and other pro-tips. If conditions allow, the incoming board will also take part in a retreat to strengthen the bonds and cooperation of the Board. Recently, this retreat has been a joint effort with the incoming SCAD and KSU AIAS Boards. Lastly, outgoing officers maintain an open line of communication with the new Executive Board, should any questions arise.