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The Executive Secretary will act as the General Returning Officer and
will conduct the election procedures. The Executive Secretary will publish a CALL FOR
NOMINATIONS in the CAPSIL three months prior to the Annual General Meeting at the
Professional Development Week. The nomination call will be for the following positions: President-Elect
Vice-President of Educational Programs
Vice-President Communications
Financial Officer
Executive Secretary
CAPSIL Editor
IPSF Liaison
The Executive Secretary shall distribute nomination forms, position descriptions and election procedures to each branch Senior Representative and the Executive Council three months prior to the Professional Development Week (PDW) Annual General Meeting (AGM).
Senior Representatives at each level are responsible for publicizing and soliciting qualified applicants for the positions.
Nomination applications will be accompanied by a curriculum vitae and a letter indicating 1)qualifications, 2) reasons for seeking the position and 3) goals of the nominee. The candidates will also be required to prepare a five minute presentation at the AGM. Any candidates unable to attend PDW shall submit a five minute videotape in place of a speech at the AGM. The deadline for submission of the application, curriculum vitae letter and videotape, if applicable, will be noon of the day prior to the AGM. No late submissions will be accepted. If there are still positions left unfilled, the protocol for By-Elections (Section V.11) will ensue for those particular positions.
V.3 GENERAL COUNCIL AND EXECUTIVE RESPONSIBILITIES
Each Executive member will be responsible for the development of three (3) relevant questions about their respective positions and the advancement of pharmacy and the Association. These three questions will be subject to General and Executive Council discussion and approval prior to the AGM. Randomly appointed Executive and General Council members who are not candidates in the election will also be chosen at this time to ask the approved questions at the AGM.
The Executive Secretary shall prepare adequate copies of the submissions to be distributed for review by the General Council and Executive so that there is opportunity for the Council to view the submissions before the presentations. There will be a minimum of one (1) hour allotted for all eligible voting members of the General and Executive Council to view the curriculum vitae and letters from all candidates, scheduled prior to the AGM at the discretion of the Secretary and President. As well, a list of the order of the candidates during the AGM presentations must be given to all Council members attending, who are not candidates and who are voting.
The Senior Representatives shall inform the candidates from their respective schools of the time, place and details of the election procedures at the AGM. As well, an announcement during the Opening Ceremonies should be made by the Executive Secretary informing all C.A.P.S.I. members of the time and location of the AGM and extending the invitation to attend.
V.4 AGM GUIDELINES
General C.A.P.S.I. business is to precede the election procedures at the AGM, at the discretion of the President. All candidates and members of C.A.P.S.I. are welcome to attend this portion of the AGM. Once the elections procedures are to begin, all candidates must leave the room. See Section V.5 for exceptions of candidates who are current Executive and General Council members.
A copy of the election procedures must be available at the AGM during the election process for reference. All candidates will give a five (5) minute presentation and will be asked to answer three (3) required questions by the randomly appointed Executive and General Council members. These appointed Council members may ask the candidate for clarification if the answer is unclear to them. The five (5) minute time limit of the presentation should be strictly enforced and an effective and minimally disruptive mechanism devised, to warn candidates of the time as it approaches the five (5) minute point.
After all of the candidates have made their presentation and answered the required questions, ALL of the candidates will be asked to leave the room. Once ALL of the candidates have left the room, five minutes are allotted for the voting delegates (Senior or Junior Representative or otherwise approved delegate) from each university to group and gather concerns and/or confer with the students attending the AGM from their respective universities. After this five minute break, only the General Council and Executive members may be present for the open forum and voting process.
V.5 CANDIDATES WHO ARE CURRENT EXECUTIVE OR GENERAL COUNCIL MEMBERS
In the event that a Senior Representative on the current CAPSI General Council is running for a position, he or she must delegate their voting responsibility to their Junior Representative. If the Junior Representative cannot be present, then an appointed voting delegate from that university must be chosen. The choice will require approval by the Executive Secretary 48 hours prior to the AGM to ensure that CAPSI’s interests are best represented. The Senior Representatives may not be present for the speeches or open forum for the position for which they are running. Senior Representatives, however, may be present for the speeches and open forum for the other positions.
In the event that an Executive member is running for a position he/she also must be absent from the room for the open forum and voting process for the particular position for which he or she is running. The Executive member agrees to give up his/her vote for that position but may be present for the open forum and vote for all other positions..
The open forum discussion is lead by the President. Each position is discussed and a vote is conducted independent of all other positions. Each voting Executive and General Council member will have been given access to the Position Description for each position. The President will present the question to the voting Council as to whether any concerns exist with any of the candidates meeting the Position Descriptions. The open forum will end once all opinions have been expressed. Under no circumstances shall personal judgments and opinions enter the discussion. Only comments relating to the candidates ability to comply with the Position Descriptions will be addressed by the voting Council.
V.7 SCRUTINEER
The Secretary will have appointed a neutral party who is not a member of the Executive or General Council and is not a candidate to be Scrutineer. The Scrutineer must be proven neutral by satisfying these above terms and his/her identity will not be disclosed until the AGM.
V.8 VOTING PROCESS
The Secretary will explain the voting procedure to all voting members and to the Scrutineer.
The President does not vote and will continue to chair the voting process. Every other Executive member, including the Secretary, is granted one vote. Each Senior Representative, or Junior Representative or appointed delegate is granted two votes, plus an additional vote for every 200 CAPSI members at their respective university.
Prior to the AGM, the Secretary will have consulted with each Senior or Junior Representative and/or the current Financial Officer to calculate the number of votes each university is entitled to. The Secretary will create the correct number of ballots for each university. The distribution of these validated secret ballots will ensure that each voting delegate is casting the correct number of votes.
The Scrutineer will distribute the correct number of ballots to each voting member. The President will call out the position and the names of the candidates running for that specific position and will clearly indicate to the General Council that the ballot must read either the :
name of the preferred candidate, OR
in the case of only one candidate running, a "FOR" or "AGAINST".
The Scrutineer will collect all of the ballots.
If the ballot reads anything other than the above specified terms, the vote is spoiled and the procedure for spoiled ballots (Section V.9) will ensue. If the ballots comply to the above specified terms, the Scrutineer and the President will perform the count and ensure that all members have voted. The totals must be held in confidence. The Scrutineer and President will reveal the results of the vote to the Secretary and allow the Secretary to confirm that all members did indeed vote and that the vote was not spoiled.
No Executive or General Council member may abstain from the voting process.
The voting delegates from each university may not split their entitled votes amongst more than one candidate.
The Secretary, after confirmation with the Scrutineer and President will announce the result to the Executive and General Council for that particular position without stating actual vote counts.
This above voting process will occur for each position.
The identity of the successful candidates will not be revealed publicly until a formal announcement is made by the President at the Farewell Banquet during PDW.
V.9 SPOILED BALLOT
In the event of a spoiled ballot, a new vote will be called for that particular position by the President and the above process will begin again with the distribution of new ballots to the voting members.
V.10 "TIE" AND "AGAINST" VOTES
In the event of a "tie", the President will vote. Only the Scrutineer will be aware of the "tie" status in order to preserve the confidentiality of the President’s vote. In the event of an "AGAINST" vote, the position will be reopened and a call for nominations will occur at the final banquet. The procedures at that point will follow the By-Elections protocol as listed in section V.11.
Senior Representatives are to promote unfilled positions at their respective schools upon return from PDW. The deadline at each school will close exactly two weeks after PDW. Candidates will submit a letter of intent, application, curriculum vitae and videotape (maximum 5 minute time limit) that must reach the Executive Secretary by the indicated deadline day.
The Executive Secretary is given two weeks from the deadline to make copies of submissions, including tapes, and distribute copies to all Senior Representatives. Upon receipt of these submissions by all schools, which must be confirmed by the Executive Secretary, Senior Representatives and Executive members are given one week to vote via e-mail for the positions. The Executive Secretary will send out an e-mail prior to the vote explaining the procedures that will take place for the vote and the exact deadline for the votes, including specific time zone referred to. Executive members are granted one vote and Senior Representatives are granted two votes plus one additional vote for every 200 members at their respective universities. E-mailed votes must go to the Executive Secretary, the President and the President-Elect. The deadline will be strictly enforced; any school that does not vote by the deadline will not be given an extension and the schools who do vote will be documented. As soon as a winner is identified, the Executive Secretary will inform the Executive and General Council of the results.
Letters will be written by the President to all candidates to inform them of the outcome and the winner will also receive a personal phone call/message, informing them of their successful candidacy. These actions must take place within one week of the identification of the winner and at least one month before the CPhA Annual Conference.