REMINDER: Call for Nominations for President-elect and Members of the Governing Board of IFLA

Nominations for President-elect August 2015-August 2017 (President 2017-2019) and Members of the Governing Board of IFLA (August 2015-August 2017)

DEADLINE: 11 February 2015

The Governing Board, in accordance with the Statutes, consists of the following members elected through this nomination and postal ballot process:

• The President-elect
• Ten members

Six members of the Professional Committee, consisting of a chair and one officer from each of the five Divisions of the Federation will be elected through a separate process by Section Officers.

Global representation and participation

As a truly representative global organisation, representing the interests of library and information services, and their users, worldwide, IFLA needs energetic, committed and capable people from a great variety of cultural and linguistic contexts to serve on its Governing Board.  Business is conducted generally in English so competence in English is necessary to enable participation, but it is also important for the Board to have a good representation of the IFLA working languages.

Being a member of the Governing Board can be time-consuming and challenging work as the Board strives to advance the contribution of library and information services to society and to improve the practice of the profession. It is also rewarding, providing the stimulating opportunity to work with colleagues from different types of library and information environments and from different cultures

Roles and Responsibilities of the President and President-elect

The President-elect serves in this role for two years, followed by two years as President.

The President leads the Federation and is its chief representative. The President represents IFLA and the world’s library and information profession internationally to key government and allied industry, international and national organisations and bodies. The President chairs the Governing Board and presides over General Assembly meetings which are held at the annual IFLA Congress. The Presidency involves a significant amount of travelling (some 50-70 days a year) for meetings, making keynote speeches and generally representing IFLA and the library and information profession.  As only limited IFLA funding is available to assist some of this travel, the President must have strong employer and other support. The President works closely with the Secretary General.

The two-year term of office as President-elect provides an opportunity to identify priorities to be pursued on assuming the presidency. The President-elect works closely with the President and Secretary General and deputises for the President as required, for example, to represent the Federation or chair meetings.

Consequently, the post of President-elect also involves a significant amount of travelling, speaking commitments and representation and therefore demands strong employer and other support. The President-elect is a full member of the Governing Board and the Executive and Professional Committees.

Roles and Responsibilities of the Governing Board

The IFLA Governing Board is responsible for the strategic and professional direction of the Federation, within guidelines approved by the General Assembly (IFLA Statutes Articles 13 and 14).  It establishes priorities, has oversight of IFLA’s activities and approves budgets and the annual accounts.  It is focused on strategic issues and provides guidance to the President, Secretary General and other officers. 

The elected members of the Governing Board serve for an initial term of two years and may stand for a further consecutive term of two years.

One of the members of the Governing Board is elected by the Board to be the Treasurer of IFLA and other Governing Board members are elected by the Board to be members of committees or working groups. The President may ask a member of the Governing Board to represent IFLA at key conferences or other meetings, to ensure that the Federation’s voice is heard. Funding assistance from IFLA is available under such circumstances.

Members of the Governing Board are expected to make themselves available, usually at no cost to the Federation, to fulfil Board responsibilities which include the requirement to meet on three occasions each year. At the IFLA Congress there are two meetings: one on the day before the Congress starts and one on the day after the Congress ends. The Governing Board and its committees and working groups also meet in December and April at IFLA Headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands. IFLA covers the hotel costs for these meetings. Some additional limited travel assistance may be available under special circumstances. Business may be conducted in between meetings by email and teleconference.

Who may be Nominated?

• A candidate for President-elect or Governing Board Member does not have to be a member of IFLA (or be employed by or be affiliated with a Member of IFLA) to be nominated.
• Candidates should have a working knowledge of at least one of the working languages of IFLA (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Russian and Spanish). Since the business meetings of IFLA are generally conducted in English, reasonable fluency in this language is necessary to be able to fully participate as a GB member.
• Candidates should have a reasonable expectation of employer and other support to fulfill the official duties and representational and financial demands of office. The Governing Board is expected to meet three times – at the IFLA Congress and in December and April at IFLA Headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands.

How do I nominate a Candidate?

To nominate a candidate for election to the post of President-elect or Governing Board member:

• The authorised signatory of an Association Member or an Institutional Member of IFLA may nominate candidates and vote in the elections. The authorised signatory is the individual who is listed in IFLA’s records as the organisation’s highest official and whose name appears on the attached nomination form. Please contact us if this is incorrect so that we can re-issue the form. This form may be photocopied, but please note that the nomination form cannot be used by anyone other than the authorised signatory of the member concerned; or
• Honorary Fellows may nominate candidates and vote in the elections; or
• Association Affiliates, Institutional Affiliates (School libraries, One-person library centres, Institutional sub-units) and Individual Affiliates (Personal/Non-Salaried/Student/New Graduate) may also nominate candidates for these positions, but may not vote in the elections.

Please note:

• There is no restriction on the number of candidates you may nominate for these positions.
• You should ensure that your nominee is willing to stand. We shall seek formal confirmation from each candidate, together with a statement, once we have received the required number of nominations for that candidate.

* Only if they have paid their membership fees in full for 2014 and are not in arrears.

Nominations DEADLINE

Nominations must reach IFLA Headquarters ON or BEFORE Wednesday, 11 February 2015. No late nominations will be accepted. To avoid disappointment please do no wait until the last day.

Elections

• In accordance with the Statutes, the elections will be conducted by postal ballot. Only those eligible Voting Members as set out in the above table will be entitled to vote. Institutional & Individual Affiliates are not entitled to vote in these elections.
• It is expected that the ballot will take place during March and April 2015, with eight weeks between the dispatch of ballot papers and the closing date for their return.
• The results will be announced on IFLA’s Website in June 2015.

These elections are extremely important for the future governance of IFLA. Please consider whether you wish to nominate candidates for these positions on the Governing Board.

Yours sincerely,

Jennefer Nicholson
Secretary General