News
The Detachment has annual elections coming up. We also have new by-laws in effect that will control the election process, and it's important that you understand these guiding principles.
Starting in February, and again at the March meeting, an election committee will be accepting nominations for the four elected officers: Commandant, Senior Vice, Junior Vice and Judge Advocate. In accordance with the by-laws, notice is herein given you, the regular members, of two months of nominations, culminating in a vote for the officers at the March meeting, and ending with the swearing in of these same new officers at the end of the March meeting.
The Commandant will appoint a Nominating Committee this month, which shall be made up of three regular members. This Committee shall seek out regular members who are best qualified, in their opinion meet the requirements of the office and who would be willing to accept the nomination, During the February meeting, the Committee will announce their recommended slate of officers. After that announcement, nominations will then be received from the floor for any others wishing to be considered for office. After each nominee's name is put into contention, he/she will be asked if they would accept the position if elected. Each nominee must answer in the affirmative or have their name removed from consideration.
The Committee had already asked that specific question of the slated officers.
The Committee shall request nominees three different times. If, after the third request for nominations there are no further nominations, the nominations shall be closed.
This same process will be used in the March meeting, except for the fact that the Nominating Committee Chairman shall announce all nominees, both on the slate and nominated from the floor, before again asking for nominations from the floor. Again, after three calls for nominations, and there being no further nominations, the nomination process is closed.
After nominations are closed in the March meeting, the Election Committee shall then proceed to the actual vote, which will be done by closed ballot (on paper), and paper and pencils or pens will be provided to all regular members for voting in those elections with more than one person running for office. Should a nominee be the only person running for office, when it comes time for that election, the Election Committee shall direct the Senior Vice Commandant to cast one vote for that nominee. The reason it's not the Adjutant who makes this vote, is that our Adjutant is an associate member and not allowed to cast a vote in an election. The Senior Vice must then cast a single vote for the sole nominee for that particular office.
If there is more than one nominee for office, voting is done by paper ballot which should be folded and passed only to an Election Committee member. The votes are then taken to a separate room and counted by two vote counters. Each counter shall independently count the vote. A final tally is then made of the votes and presented to the Election Committee Chair. Paper ballots should not be thrown away, but preserved by the Adjutant in case of future questions.
Your leadership for the coming year is important, and you have a very important role in selecting your leadership. The Detachment is run by the "red hats", with the officers only taking care of day to day operations, and that's vitally important to remember.
One last thing we should mention is the qualifications for being an officer. First, an individual must be a paid up regular member of the Detachment at the time of his election; and, all elected officers either must have completed a Department of Florida Leadership School, with a certificate, within 6 months of the election, if they don't already have a certificate. To fulfill the leadership school requirement, a Department of Florida Leadership School will be held at the March, 2011, Spring Conference. The course takes about 6-7 hours, and you are not required to spend the night. The Spring Conference, this year, is being held in Orlando, so it's reasonably close to go to. It will be held on the Friday of the Conference.
If you have any questions about the election process, please feel free to contact either Commandant John McQuiston, Judge Advocate Bill Block, or Skip Sponheim through the Detachment and any one of them will be happy to answer your question, or see that they get an answer from a proper authority.
See you at the elections !