Elections

Chapter elections are required in accordance with the approved chapter bylaws. All chapters must host an accurate, fair, and unbiased election.  The current chapter leadership board is responsible for managing the election process for next year's leadership board. The entire board should be involved and take responsibility for conducting a successful chapter election. 

A chapter's election cycle should be conducted in accordance with the HIMSS fiscal year of July 1 - June 30.  Elected Officers should be identified before July 1. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, the following templates and timelines should be helpful to streamline your process.

Per the list usage policy, individual election candidates may not campaign to the chapter’s membership through mass email or use of the chapter’s tools. The chapter board may facilitate educating the chapter’s membership by sharing the bios of all candidates via email, social media, and the chapter’s website. Candidate information must be shared in a fair and consistent way for all candidates.

• Election Timeline
• Election Requirements Checklist
• Board Role Descriptions

Sample Communications:

• Call for Nominations
• Call for voting
• Election Reminder
• Election non-elected or not nominated
• Election not eligible
• Election winner
• Sample Nomination form and Ballot

Voting / ballot tool options:

• Log into your chapter website (website admin), Content --> Add Content --> Use Election Candidate and Election Poll to set-up poll
• Other resources on Tools and Resources page 

Press Release:

• A fill-in-the-blank press release template written for the Chapter President but can be edited to meet the needs of any chapter board member. 

Election and leadership transition recordings (all about 10 minutes long).

• Chapter election recording
  • Requirements
  • Resources
  • Best practices

• Leadership transition recording
  • To-do’s
  • Best practices
  • Resources 
• Board Transition recording
  • New volunteer recruitment
  • Onboarding process
  • Annual board retreat best practices

General Transition To-Do's:

Utilize the sample Chapter Annual Checklist to help manage chapter to-do's.

• Send the new board list to chapters@himss.org
  • This will confirm access of all board members to the CLRA
  • This will confirm access to Document Repository
  • This will provide access to monthly reports
• Pass down all username and passwords to relevant officers
  • Chapter Brand Portal
  • Update Accelerate Admins
  • The President email password & update email forwarding
  • The Chapter Info email password & update email forwarding
  • Determine if any additional email addresses are needed
    • Each additional email address costs $1.25 per month
    • Notify Chapter Manager the name of the email address you are requesting
• Contact chapters@himss.org to update Board group email list
  • This is at no cost to the chapter
• Add updated Board and Chapter documents to Document Repository
• Review website and social media sites to ensure everything is up to date, including new board members information