Whether COVID-19 is keeping your chapter from meeting in person or you simply want to make voting more accessible for your members, your chapter may benefit from preparing for virtual chapter officer elections.
At least two APA chapters have already held their elections virtually to great success: the Denver Chapter Payroll Association and the Alamo Chapter of the APA.
The Denver Chapter’s 2019 election utilized a SurveyMonkey questionnaire. The survey was anonymous and sent to their members via email. Each page of the ballot featured:
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A description of the position and duties of that office (as stated in their By-Laws)
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A list of the nominees accompanied by their photo and short bio provided by the candidate
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A selection tool to cast a vote
The Denver Chapter also has an appointed Nominations Committee to tally election votes and announce the newly elected board members at the chapter’s annual meeting.
The Alamo Chapter held their online election through their website using StarChapter. The chapter also had written procedures in place for creating the election survey, sending it to members, and gathering the results. Their procedures also recommend monitoring results periodically during the election period. If fewer votes are being received then expected, the chapter can send out a survey email again to increase participation.
“It’s important to have controls in place when conducting online voting. For example: restricting the vote to current members, determining who has access to results on the survey management page, and validating against duplicates if paper voting is done as well,” says Alamo Chapter President, Andrea Jones, CPP. She explains that holding the election online also had the added benefit of helping improve their chapter website traffic. “Members tend to only visit the website to register for an event. The more we drive them to the website, the more we expose them to the variety of information it provides.”
Has your chapter held elections online before? Share your tips in the comments below!
