Mar 4, 2013
The 2013 JAT election is about to get underway.
1. Election Committee
As mandated by the JAT Bylaws, the Election Committee has three members. This year, the committee comprises Michael House (Chair), Mayumi Toyota, and Thomas Kaiser.
2. Number of positions to be filled
The following is an update on the present composition of the JAT Officers.
The JAT Officers include the following Board of Directors: Helen Iwata, Charles Aschmann, Fred Uleman, Megumi Kimoto, Karen Sandness, Marian Kinoshita, Koji Himeno, and Yoichiro Tachibana. The JAT Officers also include the following Auditors: Emily Shibata-Sato and Frank Moorhead.
There are six Officer positions up for election: five Director positions and one Auditor position.
Directors Megumi Kimoto, Karen Sandness, and Marian Kinoshita, having served the first year of their first two-year term of the present term-limit cycle, and Auditor Frank Moorhead, having served the first year of his second two-year term of the present term-limit cycle, are incumbents and not facing re-election.
Director Yoichiro Tachibana was selected by the Board as a substitute to serve out the remainder of Sako Eaton's term after the latter stepped down. Tachibana-san is thus eligible to run for election to a full two-year term under the Bylaws.
Directors Helen Iwata, Charles Aschmann, Fred Uleman, and Auditor Emily Shibata-Sato have each served four of the past six years, and are not eligible to run in the present election. Director Koji Himeno is stepping down for personal reasons as noted elsewhere.
3. Election schedule
The schedule for the election is as follows:
March 1 (00:00:00 JST)-March 14 (22:00:00 JST): Declaration/registration
period
March 15 (00:00:00 JST)-March 21 (22:00:00 JST): Campaigning period
March 22 (00:00:00 JST)-March 28 (22:00:00 JST): Voting period
* Declaration/registration period [March 1 (00:00:00 JST)-March 14 (22:00:00 JST)]
Members seeking to run for office must first declare their intent to run for office and call for endorsements. The medium for doing so will be provided subsequent to the posting of this message. They must then fill in the form in English or Japanese.
Candidates must have been JAT members in good standing for the entire year preceding the deadline for submitting candidacy statements. Endorsers must be members in good standing as of the date on which they submit their endorsement statement.
As per the JAT Bylaws, candidates need to supply full name, gender, nationality, address of current residence, home telephone number, and primary JAT e-mail address, together with the full names, primary JAT e-mail addresses and endorsement statements of 3 endorsers. Candidacy statements should provide some indication of how candidates envision JAT's evolution. Endorsement statements should give some indication of the endorser’s relationship with the candidate and the skills/attributes the endorser believes the candidate possesses that make him or her a good choice. Candidacy and endorsement statements may be up to 300 words or 600 characters in length.
The Election Committee requests endorsers to send a brief e-mail to the Committee's address confirming the names of each candidate they have endorsed, together with their endorsement statement/s.
The Election Committee will not announce any candidates until after the registration period closes and the eligibility of the candidates and their endorsers has been verified. Candidates will be deemed registered only upon said verification.
As the Election Committee needs time to verify eligibility and endorsements, we encourage candidates to submit candidacy statements early. There may be a delay in the start of the campaigning period if necessary for verification of candidate and/or endorser eligibility.
* Campaign period [March 15 (00:00 JST)-March 21 (22:00:00 JST)]
Although the Campaign period officially lasts for seven days, campaigning is not limited to this period. Members and candidates may continue to interact even after the start of the Voting period.
* Voting period [March 22 (00:00:00 JST)-March 28 (22:00:00 JST)]
Votes will be cast online. Each member may cast six votes in this election; that is, one vote each for five director candidates and one vote for one auditor candidate. Members will be sent an e-mail with a link to a personalized ballot before the start of the Voting period. Please vote in accordance with the instructions in the e-mail.
As soon as possible after the close of the election, but no later than March 31, the Election Committee will announce the results of the election in an e-mail like this one and on the JAT website.
As a volunteer organization, JAT depends on members to keep it moving forward. By becoming a Board member you can use your skills to improve JAT, give something back to the community, and possibly even have an impact on the translation industry. By voting in the election, you get to choose the people you want to look after your interests and propel JAT into the next stage of its evolution.
Please direct any queries to us.
2013 JAT Election Committee
Michael House (Chair)
Mayumi Toyota
Thomas Kaiser