The MSBO Board made a significant change in process for Board elections this year. We hope you are aware of this new process and that you will take time to participate in the governance of your professional organization.
What’s the big change? Actually, there are two:
- MSBO will be conducting our Board elections electronically this year using an online system; and
- all MSBO members will be able to vote this year, regardless of whether or not they attend the MSBO Annual Conference.
The system itself is fairly simple and is the same as what ASBO International has been using for the last two years. In fact, they are allowing us to piggyback on the process they have established. This will result in both a cost savings for MSBO and increased opportunities for our members to vote.
The only downside - if you consider it such - is that our members have to adapt to a new system. Our lives are already filled with change but we hope you will view this as a small, worthwhile change for the better.
The process is easy. On Monday, April 21, you will receive an e-mail that invites you to vote and provides you instructions. You will be able to vote any time before you go to the conference, or you may vote at the conference on your own computer or from one of the computer stations set up in our computer lab or elsewhere. You will only need to be able to access your e-mail account.
MSBO will make arrangements for those of you who don’t use e-mail, and there will also be paper ballots available at the conference.
Even though the voting will be easy, there is still some effort required on your part. You have to get to know the candidates! You can do that online by simply going to the MSBO website and checking into the biographical information we have on the candidates.
MSBO has at least one more candidate than we have positions open. That is always hard because it means a good person has to “lose.” No matter how you prepare yourself, that hurts on some level. So please do the candidates justice by learning a little about each of them and making an informed decision.
As the President of MSBO this year, I take pride in our being an “early adopter” of this electronic voting system. We will be the first state to use this system through ASBO. Like so many things in a membership organization, this will only work if the members embrace it.
We are here to serve you. Let us know what you think about this new system. We look forward to seeing you in Grand Rapids!