This Fall term, we are holding the elections for all the Engineering Society Executive positions and the WEEF Director. This blog post will go over the election process, how to nominate yourself as a candidate, and how to prepare for campaigning. If there are any questions afterwards, please email me at president.a@engsoc.uwaterloo.ca.
Elections Timeline
This term, the elections are being conducted in two sections: Presidential and Vice-Presidential. WEEF Director will be elected alongside the Vice-Presidents. This gives Presidential candidates who are not elected the opportunity to run for a VP position.
You can find the important dates listed below, or subscribe to the Fall 2016 Executive Elections calendar.
Presidential
Nominations: September 8th – 14th
All Candidates Meeting: September 14th – 6pm
Campaigning: September 16th – 25th
Voting: September 26th – 28th
Results announced: September 30th
Vice-Presidential & WEEF
Nominations: October 13th – 21st
All Candidates Meeting: October 21st – 3pm
Campaigning: October 24th – November 4th
Voting: November 7th – November 11th
Results announced: November 12th at TalEng
Positions Available and Eligibility Overview:
For position descriptions see here.
For more detailed information about the positions and eligibility requirements, see the governing documents here.
Positions available:
- President – At least 2B in Spring 2017
- VP Academic – At least 2B in Spring 2017
- VP Communications – At least 2A in Spring 2017
- VP Operations and Finance – At least 2A in Spring 2017
- VP Student Life – At least 2A in Spring 2017
For all positions, candidates must:
- have been successfully promoted from their previous academic term and not be on academic probation
- be “on-term” for Spring 2017 and Winter 2018 OR run in a pair in which at least one member of the pair is not on term or on campus for one of the terms.
**If you are unsure of your eligibility or have more specific questions, please email the Chief Returning Officer (CRO) Sameer at cro.a@engsoc.uwaterloo.ca
Nomination Process
At the beginning of the first nomination period, there will be nomination forms available in the EngSoc office (CPH 1327) and on the website. Each candidate must collect 15 signatures from on-term EngSoc members on the nomination form. A completed form must be submitted to the CRO before 12 noon on the last day of the nomination period in order to be eligible. All nominations are confidential until the end of the nomination period, when all eligibility requirements have been confirmed.
A candidate may only be nominated for one Executive Officer position in the same election. If a candidate in the presidential election is interested in running for another position if they fail to be elected, they will require a new nomination form.
All Candidates Meeting
On the last day of nominations, the CRO will call an All Candidates Meeting. This meeting is mandatory for all candidates. This is where the CRO will explain all of the rules of the election and campaign period.
Campaign
During the campaign period, each candidate will have the opportunity to attend class visits, participate in an open forum/debate, publish an IW article, and campaign in any other manner they would like in accordance with the CRO’s guidelines.
In the past, candidates have made posters, websites, facebook pages, buttons, or any combination. Campaigns are not limited to these items so you can be creative. (Please be aware that stickers are NOT permitted).
Presidential candidates are not allowed to exceed $75 (including sales tax) on their campaign material and Vice Presidential candidates are not allowed to exceed $50. Candidates who receive at least 10% of the votes are entitled to a rebate of fifty percent of their campaign expenses.
While preparing campaign material before the term will help you prepare for the election, it is very important to remember that ALL materials must be approved by the CRO and must follow the guidelines outlined at the All Candidates Meeting.
Details about the open forums will be released closer to the elections.
Voting
Each on-term student will be emailed an individual voting link and all the voting will happen anonymously online. All active campaigning will stop during the voting period, unless otherwise specified by the CRO.
The Society uses a ranked ballot for voting. This means that for each position, voters will rank each candidate (including “No Candidate”) in the order of their preference. These ranks are them factored into determining the winner.
Positions with only one candidate will be a Yes/No vote.
Results Announcement
At the end of the election, the candidates will find out the results prior to them being released to the student body. Following the Presidential election, the result will be made immediately after they are shared with the candidates. The results of the VP election will be made at TalEng.
Resources
If you have any questions about the process while you are preparing, or about the logistics of the election itself, please contact the CRO Sameer at cro.a@engsoc.uwaterloo.ca.
If you have any questions about the portfolios, the workload, being an executive, or anything else related to the positions themselves, please contact the current executive at executive.a@engsoc.uwaterloo.ca
I hope this was helpful and didn’t overwhelm you about running! If you haven’t already, please take a look at my other blog post about why you should run to be an exec!
See you at the polls!
Adelle Vickery
President ‘A’
president.a@engsoc.uwaterloo.ca
EDIT: Updated timelines 09/11 by the CRO to reflect changes to the VP & WEEF elections.