Featured Article from June 2012

The process of electing new ASCE national officers will begin this month to fill the positions of president-elect, at-large director, region director, Technical Region director, and region governor. Members of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI) will also be selecting a vice president for a term running from October 2012 to September 2016, and members of the Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI) will be selecting an individual to serve on the institute’s Board of Governors. The ASCE officers elected will all begin their terms of office at the ASCE business meeting planned for the 142nd Annual Civil Engineering Conference, which will be held October 18–20 in Montreal.

This year there are contested races for president-elect, Region 4 director, Region 5 director, Technical Region director, and Region 8 governor. Interviews with the two official nominees for the position of president-elect, Randall S. “Randy” Over, P.E., F.ASCE, and Garland P. Rose, Jr., P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE, are available at the ASCE News website by clicking here and as podcasts by clicking here. Please click here to see the full list of candidates. 

The EWRI’s Nominations and Elections Committee unanimously recommended that Paul A. Bizier, P.E., BCEE, F.ASCE, be placed on the ballot as the official nominee for EWRI vice president for a four-year term that will begin this October. For more information, please click here.

The two official nominees for the position on the EMI’s Board of Governors are J.S. Chen, Ph.D., M.ASCE, and Somnath Ghosh, Ph.D., A.M.ASCE. For additional information, please click here.

All eligible voting members will receive a paper ballot delivered via the U.S. Postal Service sent directly from ASCE’s election vendor, Survey & Ballot Systems. The paper ballot will include the member number and signature pass code, so even those without an email address on file will be able to vote electronically. The mailing of ballots to members’ addresses of record will begin on June 15. The process of broadcasting election signature codes to those with a valid email address on file will begin on June 15. Members who have not received a signature code by June 19 should contact ASCE’s customer service department at (800) 548-2723. ASCE encourages international members in particular to take advantage of the electronic voting option.

Those who are members only of an institute and not of ASCE are not eligible to vote in ASCE elections. However, those belonging only to the EWRI or the EMI will receive ballots and be able to vote for the institute offices mentioned above.

As a reminder, to be eligible to vote in this election, members must be at the associate member level or higher, and their dues for this year must have been processed by May 15. Members who upgrade after May 15 will not be entitled to vote until next year. Affiliate members and students are not eligible to vote in national elections. The voting will remain open from June 15 until 5 PM (central time) on August 14. The results will be published online in ASCE News.

Although the laws of New York—the state in which the Society is incorporated—do not expressly allow electronic voting, they do permit nonprofit organizations to implement electronic proxy voting in which members may submit proxy ballots that ultimately are cast by a designated proxy holder. In this case, that proxy holder is the secretary of ASCE.

In the survey conducted during last year’s elections, members raised a number of questions. The following answers are designed to provide some insight into the election process:

• Why aren’t all offices contested? Each region is responsible for selecting nominees for its vacant offices. The list of vacant positions in each region is posted in the September issue of ASCE News. For an election to be contested, more than one candidate must come forward. If you are interested in serving as an officer at the regional or national level, please contact your region director.

• So why are uncontested elections still on the ballot? ASCE is incorporated in New York, and according to the laws of that state officers must be elected, not appointed.

• Why can’t the election be completely electronic? ASCE’s bylaws require that ballots be sent to every voting member. Some members do not provide ASCE with a valid email address and therefore cannot receive the necessary e-signature code.

• Why is the e-signature code different from the member-only log-in? The election e-signature codes are generated by the vendor, Survey & Ballot Systems, using an alphanumeric system. However, members create their own personal log-in passwords for the ASCE Member Only site, which is not maintained by ASCE. Since ASCE cannot retrieve a member’s personal password in the event it is forgotten, generating a special e-signature code provides another layer of security.

• Why are write-ins not permitted? Write-ins were permitted in the past, but some members submitted fictional characters, which nullified their votes for that office. Furthermore, the number of write-in votes was nominal, so the Board of Direction ultimately removed that option from the bylaws.

VOTING INSTRUCTIONS

• To access the online ballot, please click here.

• Enter your 6-digit membership number (no preceding zeros) and the e-signature code you received via email or as part of your paper ballot.

• Follow the instructions for accessing nominee information and, ultimately, voting.

• You have the option of receiving an email confirmation at the conclusion of voting. ASCE does not provide your email address to the election vendor, so it will be necessary for you to supply that information if you wish to receive an email confirmation.

For information about this year’s candidates, visit http://www.asce.org/About-ASCE/Governance/Elections/2012-Nominees-for-Office/. Questions regarding the Society’s election may be directed to Patricia Jones, Aff.M.ASCE, ASCE’s director of executive and board operations and special assistant to the executive director, at (703) 295-6101 or pjones@asce.org.