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Election Policies
The following items outline policies NCTE adheres to in all our elections.
(Download a PDF of this policy.)
In order to promote an ethical election process and level playing field for all candidates and to encourage members to read the ballot materials and make an educated vote, NCTE provides a central source of information about candidates for NCTE office. While it’s natural for individuals and groups to discuss the merits of candidates, NCTE, in the name of fairness, prohibits any activity that can be construed as campaigning by or on behalf of an individual candidate. Campaigning is considered to be any activity intended to influence the election.
- Subsequent to nomination, campaigning for NCTE office shall be limited to candidate information distributed with the NCTE ballots.
- During the election process, promoting a particular candidate or candidates through advertising, endorsement, or distribution of promotional materials, including but not limited to, buttons, stickers, posters, cards, email messages, videos, social media posts, or recommendation letters, is prohibited.
- While NCTE members and constituent organizations, such as affiliates and Conferences, can inform members of a candidate’s successful nomination, suggestions that members vote for a particular candidate or candidates are prohibited.
- Promoting a candidate or candidates during NCTE functions and convention sessions is also prohibited.
This policy was approved by the Executive Committee in July 2018.
(Download a PDF of this policy.)
NCTE is composed of many talented individuals from every educational level and every phase of English language arts. The Executive Committee, wishing to encourage wide participation by members in NCTE activities, has established the following guidelines. Nominating committees and those responsible for
recommending roles for Council members (e.g., commission directors, committee chairs) should consult these guidelines in their deliberations.
Executive Committee
Some Executive Committee members (vice president, representatives-at-large) are initially nominated for their posts by nominating committees. Potential candidates for these offices should be informed at the time of nomination that they would be expected to resign from conflicting positions if they are elected.
Other Executive Committee members represent NCTE constituent groups (sections and conferences). It will be the responsibility of those groups, through their nominating committees, to inform candidates for top leadership positions that election would involve resignation from responsibilities that conflict with their Executive Committee roles.
Other Council Positions
Situations involving conflicts
No individual or group within the Council should appoint or nominate a member for a Council position without notifying the potential candidate of existing conflicts and of the necessity of resigning from the conflicting Council posts upon being elected or accepting appointments to the new position.
Non-conflict situations
Even when conflicts do not exist, individuals and groups with responsibility for nominations or appointments should make a special attempt to use the talents of capable NCTE members not currently involved in Council activities. New talent should be sought out and nurtured, especially in roles that provide an opportunity for initial involvement in Council work (e.g., membership on committees). Longstanding Council members whose terms in strong leadership positions have ended should also be considered so the benefit of their experience is not lost to the Council. In short, wide participation means
that present Council leaders are responsible for developing new leadership and making continuing use of the talents of those who have served the Council well in the past.
Dual Candidacy for Elected Offices
No one may stand for election to more than one major Council post in the same year: e.g., the College Section Steering Committee and the CCCC Executive Committee; the Secondary Section Steering Committee and the CEE Executive Committee. We cannot rank order level of service; even if we could, potential candidates might rank them differently. Since nominating committees work on different calendars (with the NCTE Nominating Committee first), and elections and assumptions of office work on different calendars, the principle is that anyone who accepts candidacy for one major role will be barred from consideration by subsequent nominating committees.
Reservation and Refinements
It is clear that certain Council positions do not call for “new faces.” Executive Committee posts, commission directorships, and similar roles require proven leaders who might or might not currently hold Council positions. In such cases, service in multiple non-conflicting roles might be warranted.
Furthermore, nominating and appointing bodies should not exclude an individual from consideration for a position of greater responsibility when the individual is presently in a conflicting post of lesser responsibility. For example, a commission member should not automatically be excluded from consideration as a nominee for representative-at-large, or for the directorship of a different commission. In such cases, the guidelines for “Situations Involving Conflicts” (above) should be followed, thus permitting the individual to accept or decline the new nomination or appointment, with full knowledge of the implications for resigning from his or her present role.
None of the reservations above apply to multiple roles that are based on liaison responsibilities. For example, a commission member might be chair of a committee whose work is within the purview of the commission. Liaison responsibilities inherently involve multiple roles, their purpose being to coordinate the flow of information among groups whose goals are related.
Finally, none of the guidelines should be interpreted as a negation of existing NCTE policies and practices regarding adequate representation of people of color, women, classroom teachers, etc., in Council activities.
(Download a PDF of this policy.)
It is the policy of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) that it embrace diversity and demonstrate sensitivity to the concerns of people of color and they be represented on Council sponsored programs, and that a similar policy be urged on affiliated organizations (conferences, assemblies, and affiliates). People of color refers to historically underrepresented groups — African Americans, Pacific Islanders, American Indians, Asian Americans, and
Latinos. To this end, NCTE expresses a desire and commitment to embrace diversity and:
- to include people of color on appointed commissions, boards, committees, task forces, and other official groups;
- to include people of color among the leadership of the above groups;
- to include people of color among the nominees presented by each nominating committee;
- to include in NCTE conventions and workshop sessions dealing with interests of people of color and using as leaders or consultants practicing teachers of color from the levels of instruction concerned;
- to include people of color in verbal and visual materials intended to represent or describe NCTE; and
- to include people of color in any recruiting efforts.
In order to monitor the effecting of this policy, the Advisory Committee of People of Color will be maintained until such time as deemed unnecessary by the Board of Directors. The intent of this policy should not be construed to impose any particular requirements on NCTE or to mean every subcommittee within a commission, board, committee, task force, or other official group.
This policy was approved by the NCTE Board of Directors in 1980. The policy was updated in February 1994 to reflect the action of the NCTE Executive Committee (November 1991) to use the term “people of color” or to use the exact term of ethnicity when referring to the historically underrepresented groups. The second item was added by the Executive Committee (September 1996) at the request of the NCTE Task Force on Involving People of Color in the Council.
- a leadership database, including people of color, will be available as a reference for each NCTE Nominating Committee for the selection of candidates for offices.
This element was added in September 2001 to reflect action of the NCTE Executive Committee.
This policy was approved by the NCTE Executive Committee on August 18, 2016, and supersedes the prior policies.
(Download a PDF of this policy.)
NCTE is an equal opportunity employer, and diversity is one of its core values.
In the statement of Core Values and Benefits, NCTE acknowledges that “[m]embers benefit from opportunities to work with and hear from colleagues with varying backgrounds and experiences; to study, question, and critique dominant and often assumed societal stances; to learn how to ceate classrooms where students develop voices that make them effective participants in academic and public discourses; and, from opportunities to learn how to make their classrooms more relevant, more inclusive, and more critical to the lives of the learners they teach and the society in which they teach.”
This policy hereby affirms NCTE’s commitment to cultivating and maintaining diversity as a core value of the organization, and its desire to embrace diversity with respect to the nomination and election of individuals to serve in leadership positions at the organization.
This policy was approved by the NCTE Executive Committee on August 18, 2016, and supersedes the prior policy, approved September 2001.