Let's begin the election process for the WINS Board of Directors.

The current Board Officers were elected on October 16, 2003. The positions are effective for a period of two years. The WINS Bylaws present the basic parameters for our elections. Beyond the absolutes in the Bylaws, I'll note some additional logistical and administrative instructions.

Please read the Bylaws WINS Bylaws as a refresher on the election process and the duties of the elected Officers.

The WINS Board of Directors is composed of individual, adult members, eighteen years of age or older, who are elected to the offices of President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Operations Administrator, Newsletter Editor and Librarian. New officers are elected, or incumbent Officers are retained (there are no term limits), by a simple majority vote of the active membership as defined in the Bylaws. Board Officers must be active members in good standing.

This Newsletter notice advises the membership of the Board's intent to conduct a general election for the Offices of the Board of Directors. The official process begins August 1, 2005, culminating with the newly elected Officers taking office on October 16, 2005. The process will consist of several phases over the next eleven or so weeks to include nominations, campaigns and voting.

Nominations
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Please consider either running for office or nominating another active member for a Board position. If you're an active member and you desire to run for office, please announce your intent. If you'd like to nominate another active member for office, the process requires three steps. The first step is to contact that member to ascertain whether s/he will accept your nomination. The second step is to announce your formal nomination of that candidate. And the third step is for the candidate who has been nominated by another active member to formally accept nomination.

In order for active members to officially run for office, their nominations require a 'second' from another active member. So, if you've thrown your own hat into the ring, another active member must second your self-nomination. If you've been nominated by someone else, your nomination must be 'seconded' by a third-party active-member to be valid. Once you've received a 'second' on your nomination, you'll be on the official ballot.

A new thread has been started on the WINS CoinTalk Forum for nominations. That's the only official location for nominations. Please utilize said Nominations Thread to - nominate yourself - nominate another member - accept your nomination which was made by another member - second another member's nomination. Please do not accomplish any portion of the nominations process on the WINS Talk or WINS Trade lists.

I'll elaborate a bit more on the WINS CoinTalk Forum shortly.

Campaigns
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Every candidate who has received a second for their nomination is eligible to campaign, if they care to do so. As with the nominations, campaigning must take place on the WINS CoinTalk Forum. In the spirit of the WINS club, campaigning must be positive, cordial, family-oriented, and free of flaming or controversial subject matter. Campaigning should consist of rendering a self-biography and/or relating what you believe you can offer to WINS as a member of the Board of Directors. A new thread has been started on the WINS CoinTalk Forum for autobiographies and campaign platforms. That's the only official location for campaigning and autobiographies. Please do not accomplish any portion of the campaigning process on the WINS Talk or WINS Trade lists.

Voting
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Once the campaigning portion of the election process is completed, an official vote will take place. Voting is limited to one vote per candidate from each active member. Offices are won by simple majority of the vote. The mechanism that we'll utilize for voting is currently being researched. Previously, a CGI format had been used wherein a member would click a link and be forwarded to a page to vote for candidates. Hopefully we'll able be to conduct our vote via a similar process. The voting will ultimately be set up by our IT Pro, Operations Administrator JD White.

In addition to the Nominations thread and the Campaign thread, one additional thread had been started on the WINS CoinTalk Forum. That thread is titled WINS Elections Discussions. This thread is reserved for anything that's pertinent to the election process aside from the Nominations and Campaigns. Please utilize this thread for any other election-related matters/issues or discussions. Please remember there are no elections-related discussions permitted on the WINS Talk or WINS Trade lists.

To participate in the WINS-elections process, you obviously must be a member of the WINS CoinTalk Forum. That forum is hosted by WINS member Peter Davis. Within the forum, Peter maintains a separate section for WINS members only. Within this special WINS section, our elections process will begin. Membership is easy. Please visit Coin Talk and click on the "register" link. Once registration is complete, please send an email to Peter Peter Davis advising that you're a WINS member, that you've registered on CoinTalk, and that you're requesting to be activated in the WINS section. Once Peter notifies you of activation, you should log onto the CoinTalk site and complete the "jump" link to World Internet Numismatic Society. There you'll find all of our elections threads.

In summary,
- nominations for WINS elections begin August 1, 2005
- campaigning may begin as soon as a candidate is nominated, seconded and accepts nomination
- nominations and campaigning will close September 24, 2005
- voting for candidates will last two weeks beginning September 25, 2005 and ending October 8,
   2005
- tallying of the votes and the announcement of the winners will take place during the week of
   October 9, 2005
- newly elected Officers will assume Office on October 16, 2005.

So, let the election process begin! If you have any questions, please contact a member of the Board. Thank you.

Best Regards,

Ralph J. Huntzinger
WINS President