Nomination and Election: EHS President and Honorary Secretary

Members of the Economic History Society are invited to contact members of Council with suggestions for the offices of President and Honorary Secretary. The terms of office of the President (Professor Catherine Schenk) and the Honorary Secretary (Dr Helen Paul) will end at the Annual General Meeting on Saturday, 2 April 2022 at Robinson College, Cambridge. Neither office is renewable.

Deadline for response: 30 June 2021.

Nomination and Election Procedure:

• Each nomination must be supported by a total of five members of the Society, whose names must accompany the nomination.
• Council members can submit one nomination only for each office for which there is a vacancy
• Nominations must be accompanied by: a brief CV; a note of service to the Society; and a one-page paper on how they perceive the office and how they intend to contribute to the advantageous development of the Society, if elected.
• A Nomination and Election Committee will be convened by the Executive. This Committee will normally include the two Council representatives on the Executive and will exclude the incumbent officers for the election, and any nominees to the vacant office(s).
• The Committee will scrutinise the nominations and, if required, propose candidates for election to each vacant office. If no suitable candidate has been proposed, the Committee will make a further request to Council for nominations. If the Committee concludes that there is only one suitable candidate, the AGM will be asked to approve that individual.
• The mode of election will be an electronic ballot* of all members. Where there are more than two candidates, voting will be by transferable vote, ensuring that the successful candidate obtains at least 50% of the votes cast.
• Following an election, a single name will be presented for approval to the AGM.
• Should an election be required, electronic voting, via the Society’s website, will open in November for a two-week period. Each member will be able to vote once for each post for which there is a ballot.

* The ballot will ask for a preference (1, 2, 3) and if one candidate receives 50% of first preferences, they are elected. If not, the candidate with the fewest first preferences is eliminated, and their second preference votes redistributed to the remaining two candidates (which means that one of those remaining two has at least 50% of votes [adding first and second preferences together]).

If you have any queries, please contact the Society’s administrator, Maureen Galbraith.