Nomination Process
Nomination for the NYSBA Board Of Directors elected seats (see below for At-Large seats) is by self-nomination during the Nominating Period, Oct 3rd-24th. During this time, if any Member of the Association in a region electing a seat wishes to stand for election, they need only contact the Executive Director with an email stating their intent to stand, a short industry bio, photo, and a statement of purpose for Voting Members of the relevant region to consider. The bios and statements will be made available on the NYSBA website on Oct 25th when voting opens, and will be available throughout the voting process.
Note that only one representative from each brewery may stand for an election or occupy a board seat.
Note as well that Board Candidates must be familiar with and willing to sign the Board Agreement (http://newyorkcraftbeer.com/2016-elections/board-member-pledge-of-duties/) and commit to being available for an entire three year term, annually comprised of 4 board meetings a year, 3 face-to-face and monthly conference calls, some will involve travel time and some (partially remunerated) expenses.
2024 – E-Central, Western, NYC
2025 – West Central, Capital, Hudson Valley
2026 – Northeast, Central, Long Island
All Voting Member breweries within each District are eligible to forward a nominee and to vote on the standing candidates for the same District.
The Election Process
Voting commences on the 25th of October and concludes on the 2nd Tuesday of November at Midnight. Each brewery may vote once; each brewery’s designated representative will receive a link from the website
http://OpaVote.org at their registered email address which they should use to cast their ballot. OpaVote is an online election service which provides secure and low cost voting, and importantly can instantiate the type of Ranked Choice Voting (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranked_voting_system)
determined by the Board’s Governance committee to be the best for for NYSBA seat elections. One caveat is that the site should be accessed by lap- or desktop machine with a standard browser; it is not mobile-enabled.
Each voter will be presented with a ballot listing all the candidates standing in their district, and can simply drag them into their desired order of preference. Voters may choose to rank all the candidates, or any number as few as one. At the close of the election, the site will perform the iterations required to determine the majority candidate, and the results will be conveyed to the board’s Governance Committee, as well as to all the voters of a district directly.
At Large Seats
The Governance Committee determined that, in addition to the nine District Seats which are voted on by the Members, the Board should have two At Large Seats which are the provenance of the Board itself. These seats will be staggered and consist of 2-year terms. The motivation behind these seats is for the Board to be able to fill any gaps in the Board’s skill-set or overall constituency that may not be produced by the election process. Thus, the Board can ensure that there is, for example, someone with legal or accounting acumen, fundraising or grant-writing skills, or a brewpub or farm brewery on the board, should the election produce a board absent some critical component.
The incoming board shall meet as soon as can be scheduled after the election to discuss candidates for the available At-Large Seat and then to vote.
