ALWD Elections
Elections for leadership positions in the Association of Legal Writing Directors are held each year in March. Bylaws provisions relevant to elections are found below. The Association is governed by officers (President, President-elect, Secretary, and Treasurer) and by a nine-member Board of Directors (with directors serving staggered three-year terms).
(3) Method of Electing Directors: Any member of the Association in good standing is eligible to be elected to the Board of Directors.
(A) Pursuant to Article VIII, the President of the Association shall each year appoint an Elections Committee. By January 15 of each year, the chair of the Elections Committee shall place a notice on DIRCON inviting members of the Association to nominate candidates for election to the Board of Directors.
(B) A nomination may be transmitted to the Elections Committee chair in any form, but, to be effective, it must be received by February 15. The Elections Committee shall determine whether each nominated person is eligible. The Elections Committee shall also contact each nominated person to determine whether he or she is willing to serve. The Elections Committee may itself nominate candidates in addition to those nominated by the membership.
(C) By March 15 of each year, the Elections Committee shall forward to the President of the Association a list of eligible persons who have been nominated together with statements submitted by those persons.
(D) In accordance with Article IV(6), the President shall schedule an electronic mail election to be completed no later than April 1 of each year. For the purpose of the annual elections, the electronic vote may extend beyond the three-day period specified in Article IV(6).
(E) The Elections Committee shall oversee the counting of ballots and shall certify the results to the Secretary. Nominees receiving the largest number of votes shall be deemed elected whether or not they receive a majority of the votes cast. In the event of a tie vote, the Elections Committee shall schedule a run-off election between the nominees who received an equal number of votes on the first ballot. The Elections Committee shall provide seven days notice of any such run-off election.
(4) Right to Vote: Each qualifying law school has one vote.
(A) If only one person at a qualifying law school is a member of the Association, that person shall cast a full vote.
(B) If a qualifying law school employs co-directors of equal rank or multiple directors of different writing programs, they shall divide the vote between or among themselves as they see fit; if they do not agree on how to split the vote, each shall cast an equal fraction of one vote.
(C) If a qualifying law school employs both a current director and a person who qualifies as a member but does not presently direct a legal writing program (for example, a former director or a current associate or assistant director), the director shall cast a full vote, and the other person shall not vote.
(D) If a qualifying law school employs full-time legal writing teachers but no director, the person or persons chosen by the teachers for membership pursuant to Article IV(2)(E) shall vote as though that person were a director or those persons were co-directors.
(2) Elections, Terms of Office: Any member of the Association in good standing at the time of the commencement of the elections and holding voting rights pursuant to Article IV(4) is eligible to serve as an officer of the Association.
(A) A new President-Elect shall be elected annually in the same manner provided in Article V(3) for election to the Board of Directors. At the end of the President-Elect’s term, the President-Elect shall automatically become President. The Secretary and Treasurer shall serve three-year terms and be elected in the same manner as provided in Article V(3) for election of the Board of Directors. The terms of office shall begin on the first day of August following election.
(B) If the Presidency of the Association becomes vacant at some other time, the President-Elect shall complete the President's term of office and then serve his or her own term as President. Other vacancies among the officers may be filled by a majority vote of the Board of Directors as soon as practical after a vacancy occurs.
(C) Each officer shall hold office until a qualified successor has been elected or until death, resignation, or removal pursuant to Article VI(3).