Thoughts from the Nominating Committee By Chris Cryderman, BCLS Chair, Nominating Committee
A
s Past President, it was my job to chair the Nominating Committee for the 2021 Board election. Events of 2020 (COVID-19, and changes to the nomination process) contributed to what became something of a struggle to put together a full slate of candidates. The “new normal” that has resulted from the pandemic influenced several potential candidates not to run this time around. Historically, there were three paths to being nominated for election to the Board: 1. Nominees were sought out by the Nominating Committee, and recommended to the Board for nomination (Bylaw 5.3); 2. Two months prior to the AGM any six practising land surveyors could, in writing, nominate a candidate in any year from practising land surveyors (Land Surveyors Act, Section 16); 3. Nomination of candidates could be made orally from the floor at an extraordinary general meeting (Land Surveyors Act, Section 19). In 2020, potential nominees were invited to complete a “merit-based” Nominee Statement Form for consideration by the Board. The form
sought to establish what potential competencies a candidate could bring to the Board. Additionally, the path to nomination was expanded through an advertisement in the ABCLS Update e-newsletter to include any practising member who wished to put their name forward. It was hoped that this would help demonstrate transparency
or knowing something of their background, we found many tended to downplay their experience and knowledge in areas outside of what they considered their expertise. In the assessment of the Nominating Committee, they often did have skills relevant to those competencies. We are not looking for candidates to be
If you are interested in running for the Board, don’t hesitate to do so because you feel you lack some desired skill, or competency. and expand the number of possible nominees, while quantitatively improving our ability to assess the strengths they could bring to the Board. The uptake on this path was somewhat disappointing, which resulted in the Nominating Committee seeking out additional nominees. I guess it should have been expected that any new process might be slow to adopt. There did seem to be some hesitation with candidates over the new form. Several potential nominees expressed concern that they did not feel they had many of the relevant skills and competencies desired. Talking with them about their statements,
experts in everything. We are only asking for an honest assessment of a candidate’s experience in the fields requested. If you are interested in running for the Board, don’t hesitate to do so because you feel you lack some desired skill, or competency. The fact that you would be concerned may be just an indication that you know what you don’t know – and that’s a good thing! The goal of the skills and competency questions are to try and make sure that, overall, those attributes are represented on the Board. We don’t expect anyone to have them all – just demonstrate what you could bring to the Board. ✥ the LINK | April 2021
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