How can our nominating committee find the best people for the job?
The Nominating Committee is one of the most important committees your PTA has. It is their task to find the best people to fill the elected positions on your board. Remember that you elect your nominating committee (they are NOT appointed) at a meeting at least 60 days prior to your election meeting to give them ample time to accomplish their task!
Once your committee has been elected, they have lots of great options open to them to recruit candidates for consideration to the elected positions. A few of our favorites are:
- Post on social media: Parents are busy, but they do spend time on social media. Post quick job descriptions and ask for anyone interested to contact you.
- Send fliers home in backpacks or email them out to your members. Remember to reach out to families in their home language– so that your PTA can be as inclusive as possible!
- Talk to parents! When you continue to see the same faces at your events, get to know those parents. Suggest that they take a more active PTA role next year by serving on the executive board.
- Ask teachers, staff members, and your school administration for suggestions. School staff members come into contact with amazing volunteers every day! Asking them for a few suggestions of parents who might want to serve on the executive board is a wise idea. Don’t forget that your principal, or their designee, sits on the nominating committee and they are also a great resource for parents or community members who might want to serve on your PTA.
- The Nominating Committee can create an application for candidates (or they can use ours). Applications help you to understand the strengths of each candidate, which is helpful for someone that the committee doesn’t know. Having the option to call references can be helpful if you are trying to distinguish between two highly qualified candidates.
- Interviewing the candidates is a great way to get to know their skills and interests. This can be done in person, via phone, or online — offer options to accommodate everyone’s schedule. For a suggested list of questions, click here.
- Candidates should be fairly considered. An easy way to do this is to have a rubric or a standard method of scoring the candidates. California State PTA has a checklist that you can use, or you can create your own.
Things you shouldn’t do:
- Force or coerce someone to put their name on the slate of candidates. It’s better to leave a position open than to twist someone’s arm.
- Not be forthcoming about the responsibilities and time needed to do the job well. We should set each candidate up for success by being honest with them about the number of meetings, time commitment, and responsibilities for their position.
- Violate your bylaws by exceeding the term limits of a position. Even if a person has served wonderfully for two terms and they are willing to serve a third term, it is a violation of your bylaws to do so. This rule is in place so that we can constantly get new ideas and new people onto our boards which help to keep things fresh!
- Assume that people on the board will continue the next term. We always need to reach out to the current board members to see if they plan to continue and which positions they are interested in.
- Put someone on the slate who hasn’t agreed to serve. Just because you think they would be amazing doesn’t mean that you are able to put them on the slate. Each and every candidate must be asked if they are willing to serve, and they must accept the nomination!
We hope that your nominating committee will be able to smoothly put together its slate of candidates for the 2020-2021 school year. Don’t forget to post the list of candidates at least 28 days prior to your association meeting!
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