Переслане пов?домлення
В?д: "Thierry Montmerle"
Кому: "yatskiv"
Над?слано: Четвер, 7 Травень 2015 р 18:34:56
Тема: Message to the community: Preparing the Division and Commission Elections
Dear Colleagues,
Please find below some important information related to the forthcoming Division and Commission elections.
Best regards,
Thierry Montmerle
General Secretary
Summary:
1. Context and motivations
2. Rules for standing up for elections
3. Timeline for Commission OC elections
4. Spam alert ?
REMINDER: Deadline for the sign-up vote for Commissions: 15 May, 23:59 CEST (=UT+2)
Your voting code is inserted at the bottom of the "Message to the community: Signing-up for the post-GA Commission" sent on 29 April by "iau.org". Please check your mailbox if you wish to sign-up for a Commission but haven?t done so yet.
1. Context and motivation
After having sent my previous message on behalf of the Division Presidents, concerning the elections to the Division Steering Committees, and in particular encouraging "at-large" candidates to run for these elections ["Division Steering Committee election candidates", sent on 30 April by "iau.org"], I have consulted the Division Presidents and future Presidents of the approved Commissions that will be legally created at the end of the next General Assembly (GA) in Honolulu, to agree on rules to follow and the timeline for the Commission elections.
Indeed, we are undertaking a process that combines two distinct elections by the same community: elections to the Division Steering Committees (DSCs), and to the Commission Organizing Committees (OCs).
When the Division restructuring was adopted at the Beijing GA in 2012, the Division Presidents (DP) and Vice-Presidents (DVP) were not elected, but appointed by the Executive Committee and approved by the GA, as a transition until the next GA in Honolulu. Now we are organizing a full election of all the functions of the DSCs: DP, DVP, and renewal of half of the at-large members that were elected in the wake of the sign-up for the new Division structure in the fall of 2012.
For Commissions, we are now in comparable transition regime: Commission co-proposers will be considered as "ex-officio" OC members, i.e., not subject to an election to the Commission they have proposed, and the Vice-President and "at-large" members (i.e., drawn from the Commission members) will be elected. It is only at the end of the next triennium (in preparation for the 2018 GA in Vienna) that all the OC members will have an elected status.
Details about the DSC elections have been given in my previous message [see above]. The present message concerns more specifically the Commission OC transition elections.
2. Rules for standing up for DSC and OC elections
Since we are organizing two distinct elections (DSCs and OCs), for each of the 9 Divisions and the 35 approved Commissions, with some OC positions being already attributed ("ex-officio" members), a multitude of combinations can be a priori imagined by candidates considering standing up for elections.
To keep matters as simple as possible, and also to allow to "rejuvenate" the largest possible number of positions, the Division Presidents, with the approval of the Executive Committee, have adopted the following rules to stand up as candidate to the forthcoming elections to the Commission Organizing Committees (OC) and to the Division Steering Committees (DSC) (the membership to either being hereafter called "function"):
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1) One can be a candidate for election to one function only; 2) One person can occupy only one function ("one person-one function" rule).
Therefore, if one person is foreseen to occupy a function for the next three years not subject to election at this time (either as "ex-officio" member of a Commission OC, or past Division President, or a Vice-President becoming President, etc.), but wants to run for an election, he/she must first resign from that future function. In that case, he/she will be replaced by an "at-large" candidate. (If the candidate is the nominal future President of a Commission, a new President must be designated among the co-proposers, again prior to the election.)
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The formal call for at-large candidates to OC elections will be sent to the new Commission membership, once it is known (i.e., after the Commission sign-up deadline of 15 May).
3. Timeline
The timeline for OC elections agreed by the Division Presidents and the future Commission Presidents can be accessed via the link:
www.iau.org/static/submissions/Commissio...ections_Timeline.pdf
This timeline had already been published (see
www.iau.org/administration/events/), but now the May 15-June 15 period is dedicated to finding at-large candidates and arranging the OC vote. (This page will be updated soon.)
4. Spam alert ?
Some colleagues have indicated that they didn?t receive previous messages about the election, presumably because of spam filters.
We have no way of solving this problem. If one of your colleagues reports such a case, then the only solution is to make sure that the sender address "iau.org" is accepted by one?s own spam filter, or by consulting the relevant system manager.
As a last resort, a new voting code can be obtained from Madeleine at .
