DURHAM, NC (November 1, 2009) – The National Press Photographers Association's new national Board of Directors will be elected during a month-long period of online voting that will run through November, and the candidates biographies and campaign statements are now online and available for review.
All NPPA members in all NPPA regions are eligible to vote in this national board election. The new board structure of electing a national panel replaces the old "regional" structure that had been in place since the organization's founding in 1946. The bylaws changing how NPPA's board is structured and elected were modified in June during the annual business meeting, which was held this year in Las Vegas, NV, during Convergence '09.
Under the old method, there were "regional" elections in 11 geographical territories and even and odd numbered regions held elections in alternating years. Under the new board structure, a streamlined panel made up of six at-large board members and three appointed board members will govern the organization. Newly elected national board members will each serve three-year, staggered terms, and the appointed directors will serve for an unspecified length of time.
NPPA's president will appoint the three non-elected board members, and the appointments can come at any time prior to the next board meeting. There is no approval process for the appointments; they are solely at the president's discretion.
NPPA national secretary Denise McGill says that all NPPA professional and student members can vote for two candidates. The top two vote-getters will serve three-year terms; the next two vote-getters will serve two-year terms; the next two vote-getters will serve one-year terms. After this transitional cycle, all elected board members will serve three-year staggered terms.
"We look forward to everyone's participation in this historic election," she said.
The candidates who are running for election for NPPA's new national board are:
Voting will take place by logging in to this page.
The next meeting of the board will take place January 16-17 at the NPPA offices in Durham, NC, and McGill says that new board members should plan to attend.
At the same time as the national board election, members in NPPA's six odd-numbered regions will elect local leaders to the re-named and slightly re-tasked positions of Regional Chair and Associate Chair. "These individuals will take up a very important role in the organization, for they will be the foot soldiers (if you will) in the grassroots," NPPA vice president Sean D. Elliot said.
The Chair and Associate Chair in each region retain all the rights and responsibilities for the operations of regional activities that the Regional Directors and Associate Directors had in the old system. While they will no longer be automatically seated on the board of directors, they will retain the authority to appoint all the same regional volunteer positions; oversee the regional publication (Web site); and plan regional events. The Regional Chairs will submit a budget request just as in the past, and have the same authority to spend budgeted funds for appropriate activities, he said.
