It’s the time of year that AIR asks for nominations to elected office - Vice President, Board at-large members, and Nominations and Elections Committee (NEC) members. It happens every year, and yet every year it catches people by surprise and somehow falls to the bottom of the priority list. In an effort to encourage participation in the process, I thought I’d debunk some popular myths about the process.

Someone else has probably nominated [person I would nominate] so I don’t need to. Well, you can’t know that. And guess what - if multiple people nominate an individual, that sends a positive message to the Nominations and Elections Committee. We are data people - we listen to those messages.

I need to have lots of information ready before I can nominate someone. Nope. We’ve made it really easy with our new website - you only need to type in part of a person’s name and the system will find the information for you. AND, if the system can’t find your person, you just type their name and email into a free form page. That’s it. No additional information is needed.

I should check with [person I would nominate] first. You don’t need to. After you submit a nomination we’ll send the nominee an email asking if they are interested. They can always say no at that point, but they will know that someone thought they should run. And maybe they won’t say no the next time.

I can’t nominate myself. Wrong again. Self nominations are always welcomed! Don’t wait for someone else to do it if you think the time is right.

If I nominate someone, it means they’ll be on the ballot. Actually, the nomination is just the first step. The person has to be willing to run. They fill out a nominee questionnaire to provide the NEC more information about them and their qualifications. Then, the committee looks through all of the information about the nominees to determine the strongest candidates for the ballot. 

I don’t know enough people to know who should run. You probably know more people than you think. Don’t worry about whether you know the absolute best person for the job - that’s the NEC’s job to figure out. Just think about who you know that would be good for one of the positions. And if you need to be reminded of what would make a good candidate, we have a website for that. 

So please, take the time to go to the nominations site and nominate someone today.