Tacoma Branch Special Election

The Tacoma Nominating Committee encourages your participation in two upcoming elections: A Special Election will be held in August to approve Operating Procedures changes prior to Council Member elections in September. Both elections will be conducted electronically via a Web link sent to all member emails.

Our Operating Procedures are the foundation for governance of the Tacoma Mountaineers. The governing Council has updated the Operating Procedures to reflect current practice and to be more user friendly. Most are non-substantive changes such as updates, formatting and removing duplicate information.There are however notable substantive changes being recommended by Council and supported by the Nominating Committee:

1. Currently most Council terms are only 1 year and elections must be organized every year. This not only impacts consistency and continuity of governance, it requires significant leader volunteer time to organize elections every year. The ballot will include a recommendation to change Operating Procedures so all elected Council members serve 2- year terms and elections be held every 2 years.
2. The Operating Procedures currently state the Chair-Elect automatically becomes Chair of the Governing Council in the next term. The ballot will include a recommendation that the Chair Elect, after serving 1 year, must receive a majority vote of Council to assume the Chair position for the next term.
3. A new Procedure is being added to support a written process for establishing a new activity in the Tacoma Branch. This process allows for all new activities to be vetted by Council and the appropriate committees. This will ensure alignment with the mission/vision of The Tacoma Mountaineers and The Mountaineers. New activity proposals will also be reviewed by the Safety Committee.

Please be on the lookout for emails titled, "Tacoma Branch Election Ballot" on August 1 and September 1.

Thanks for your support and participation!

Sincerely,
The Tacoma Branch Nominating Committee
Sharon Carlson
Tyler Farr
Julie Myer
Gary Peniston
Margot Tsakonas