communication department

Volume XX Number 4

Holding SIG Elections: A Case Study

By Michael Markley, Manager, Management Special Interest Group

If you’ve been a member of an STC geographic community, you know elections as commonplace events that everyone understands and expects. For STC’s virtual communities, however, elections are a relatively new occurrence. The leadership of such communities (also known as special interest groups, SIGs) has traditionally been appointed: the board appoints and approves the manager, and the other SIG positions are appointed by the manager.

In the past few years, we’ve seen the advent of numerous STC membership classifications (classic, limited, and so on) that allow members to be more selective about the communities with which they associate themselves. This means two things:

1. SIGs are more prominent than they once were. In fact, a member can opt out of joining a geographic community altogether in favor of joining two SIGs, and the cost of joining an additional SIG is the same as that of joining an additional geographic community ($10).
2. We owe it to our members to tighten up our SIG operations. We need to start electing our core leadership to ensure fair representation.

Why Should SIGs Hold Elections?

Holding SIG elections will help us:

• Mirror the operational structure of geographic communities. Elected leadership reflects a familiar governance model, helping people accept SIGs as an equivalent to geographic communities. This serves to build SIG legitimacy and value, which is good for everyone.
• Raise the vested interest of SIG members. Common wisdom indicates that people support the things that they create themselves. Involving SIG membership in elections gives people a stronger sense of ownership, and leads to greater loyalty and involvement.
• Position SIGs to be in touch with members’ needs. Elections ensure a rotation of leaders, which means that a steady flow of new ideas and viewpoints will move through the leadership council. This, in turn, keeps SIG activities fresh—and relevant to membership needs.

How to Hold a SIG Election

STC’s Management SIG has held two elections since October 2005. The following information is a culmination of the lessons I’ve learned during this process.

Select a Nomination Committee

You might initially think that the critical component of an election is the slate of candidates. Based on my experience, however, it is the nomination committee that is most important. This committee is responsible for selecting strong candidates and ensuring a connection between the SIG leadership and membership.

I recommend a committee of three to four people. Ideal committee members should be:

• well connected within the SIG
• not connected to the sitting leadership council (and otherwise unbiased)
• willing to ask people to volunteer

Serving on a nomination committee is a mid-level commitment for a relatively short period of time. It’s a great way to contribute to the organization without making a long-term commitment; because of this, you should have little trouble finding people to volunteer.

Note: The nomination committee for the Management SIG also ran the election itself; however, this is not mandatory. Depending on the circumstances, your SIG may choose to have another committee coordinate the election.

Schedule

The following is a guide for how you could schedule your nomination and election activities. Coinciding your leadership changes with the annual conference in May allows for an orderly, face-to-face transition between current and incoming leaders. Moreover, this schedule aligns fairly closely with the fiscal year, and it gives the new leaders an opportunity to spend the summer planning activities for the coming year. Of course, your nomination committee must agree to whatever schedule you set; these dates are merely suggestions.

Online Election Tools

The Management SIG has used these tools for the past two elections:

• Survey Monkey. Cost: about $20/month. In addition, the Management SIG used this tool to distribute its membership survey, which was very useful in assessing operational goals.
• Zoomerang. Cost: nonprofit rate of $99 for three months.

To ensure reliable and valid results, you should select one of two options: have voters input their membership number to be cross-referenced with your membership records, or allow only one vote per computer. The latter option is a little less reliable because it’s dependent on the use of cookies, and, typically, people have access to more than one computer.

Additional Considerations

Among the topics that you will need to consider when you run elections is how the write-in candidate process works. Consult both your SIG bylaws and the Society bylaws for guidance on this issue.

Also, you might consider using the election process to gain approval for bylaws updates. In 2007, the Management SIG membership is considering a change to the bylaws that would increase the number of elected positions from three to five. This change will either be approved or denied through the online election that we are holding.

Customize the Process for Your SIG

Every SIG is different, and certainly there will be different ways to carry out the task of electing SIG leadership.

Best wishes to you as you work through the process to include your membership in the nomination and election process.