Here is what you need to know about the upcoming BCAS Board of Directors Elections.
Background
The Board of Directors (BOD) is comprised of 9 members: four officers (President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary) and five Members-at-Large. It’s the BOD, working with the Music Director, who make all things happen for Buffalo Choral Arts Society, including organizing the production of our rehearsals and concerts. BOD members are expect to do work. The work of the BOD is described in the BCAS By-laws located in the Member section here. The BOD meets monthly, mostly using Zoom, and communicate extensively via email otherwise. Stories of dance parties, keggers, etc. are grossly inaccurate.
Open Positions
The Officer positions run in two year, staggered terms. This year the offices of Vice-President and Treasurer are up for election. Member-at-Large positions are elected each year.
Our by-laws describe the Vice-President position as you might expect as the backup to the president for running things, but in reality the VP is the chief shaker and mover responsible for shepherding all our committees, coordinating meeting agendas and looking after the “society” aspect of our chorus.
The Treasurer looks after our finances by doing our banking, paying bills, and routinely presenting reports on the status of our finances.
Both VP and Treasurer candidates must have some prior BCAS BOD experience to be qualified to run; Members-at-Large do not.
The by-laws say that Members-at-Large “offer opinion and guidance to the Board and to serve as a link between the membership and the Board”. Members-at-Large often take responsibility for leading committees, and organizing and completing tasks.
How Elections Work
Again according to our by-laws, our President will select a Nominating committee composed of three members. Yours truly, Rick Lesniak, is chairing the committee this time and I’m needing two volunteers to help out. We will gather candidate information from our members and put together a slate of nominees that will be voted upon in secret on Oct 26.
A call for candidates will go out at least four weeks before our Oct 26 meeting, this year being our rehearsal on 9/21/2022. Anyone interested in knowing more about being a candidate can talk with the Nominating Committee. Members who want to run for the BOD need to declare their intention to the Nominating Committee in writing – a text or email will do nicely.
Candidates are given a simple questionnaire to complete so that all members have the opportunity to read about their background and what they want to accomplish on the BOD. The questionnaires will be posted on the website.
At the annual meeting, Oct 26, voting will be held. If there is only one candidate for each office, then the Secretary will cast one ballot and officers will be duly elected. If, however, there are multiple candidates for each office, then actual ballots will be passed out, collected, counted and the winners announced. Board terms begin immediately upon election.
It has become a BCAS tradition that incoming and outgoing board members all come together for the first meeting in November. This helps smooth the transition.