Checklist: Area Director Elections
Benefits of Area Director elections
An effective Area Director election process ensures that clubs in the area have a say in how they are supported by the District. It encourages participation and collaboration and provides an opportunity for leadership growth.
About this checklist
This checklist provides guidance to Area Directors about how to plan, prepare for and perform Area Director elections.
The checklist
Send the notice of election
At least four weeks prior to the election date, send a notice to all the clubs in the area about the election. This should include the date & time, the process for nominating candidates and the details of who is eligible to vote.
People eligible to vote are:
- Area Director
- Assistant AD Programme Quality*
- Assistant AD Club Growth*
- Area Secretary*
- Club President
- Club VP Education
- Club VP Membership
Quorum = a majority of the council.
* These roles must have been agreed at the beginning of the Toastmasters year.
Proxies
- Any member can ask a paid up member of their club to be their proxy- notified in writing to Area Director
- If only one club leader is present and the other two haven’t provided a proxy then the club leader can act as proxy
- If two officers are present and they can not agree who should cast third vote, it goes to the highest ranking officer
- If the club doesn’t have one of the officer roles filled then you can not have that vote.
- No one can have more than 3 votes, even if they are in different clubs
Conduct the election
Clubs may submit, in writing, the names of any candidate from their clubs. Nominations from the floor can be accepted.
Toastmasters International requires that any candidate running for and/or holding office, whether elected or appointed, agree to and sign the District Leader Agreement and Release Statement Form. You can download the form here: https://www.toastmasters.org/resources/district-leader-agreement-and-release-statement
At the start of the election process, ask if there are any further candidates that wish to run from the floor. Once all candidates are known, close the nominations.
Once nominations have closed:
- If there is only one candidate: the Area Director declares that they are elected
- If 2+ candidates, each candidate has 2 minutes to speak (alphabetical order by surname)
- Vote by secret ballot
- If someone has a majority, then they are elected
- If there is no majority, then the candidate with fewest votes is removed from the ballot and the council votes again. This repeats until there is a majority
- In the event that there are two remaining candidates and the result of the vote is a tie, the current Area Director has a tie-breaking vote
After the election
- Complete this notification form to provide the details of the elected Area Director
- Meet with the incoming Area Director to arrange a handover
