Call for Nominees:

We will be holding elections for all Executive Board member positions, and we strongly encourage self-nominations. Participation on the Sedgwick Society board is not only personally rewarding, but also an excellent way to expand your service to the profession at the national level and to develop contacts and build relationships with other scholars and educators in the field. For this election cycle, Ellen Foster has agreed to serve as the Sedgwick Society election coordinator. People who are interested in serving as officers must send their candidate statements to Ellen via email— foster.ellen@gmail.com. Candidate statements will be distributed with a link to a ballot.

All officers are elected to three-year terms by simple majority of the members who vote via the official ballot. If you have questions or would like more information about a particular position, or about serving on the Executive Board more generally, we encourage you to contact any of the current executive board members (cmsedgwicksociety.org/executive-board/). The officer team consists of the following positions. See next page for descriptions:

President

First Vice-President, Programs

Second Vice-President, Programs

Vice-President, Communications and Newsletter

Vice-President, Membership and Finance

Vice-President, Digital Resources

Executive Board Position Descriptions

The Executive Board duties are imperfectly listed in the CMSS by-laws. The descriptions offered below give prospective candidates a more specific sense of the officers’ roles.

President

Promotes the Society’s vision and mission of supporting scholarship and exchange on CMS’s life and works, and overall, to increase visibility of society and support productivity of membership by helping to coordinate conference activity, both “external” (reading abstracts, chairing if needed) and “internal” (especially contacting keynote speakers, helping with arrangements); recruiting new members; connecting with other author societies (co-sponsoring conferences and events at conferences to promote scholarly activity); suggesting and generating content for the newsletter (e.g., “annual report,” special articles, membership activity, & soliciting others to contribute); fundraising for symposia; mini- grant writing for special events; contacting/updating Advisory Board members.

First Vice-President, Programs

Organizes a (generally) tri-annual symposium. Working with the CMSS board, identifies a theme and location; creates a CFP and registration information; receives and reviews abstracts; organizes panels and the symposium schedule; identifies the keynote speaker(s) and other outside events; works with food and drink vendors; and generally hosts the symposium itself. While the first VP coordinates all of these tasks, many of them are done by board members, other volunteers, and/or a host institution.

Second Vice-President, Programs

Prepares panels for national conferences, including ALA and SSAWW and MLA (this includes sending out call for papers, selecting abstracts, chairing or choosing a chair, and communicating with organizations and presenters); works with Executive Committee to design conference panel topics, solicit proposals, organize blind review of abstracts, arrange for chairing of panels, communicate with panelists; may prepare or coordinate panels at regional conferences; assists first VP Programs with organizing symposium.

Vice-President, Communications and Newsletter

Produces and distributes the Society’s newsletter (digital format); sends occasional email updates and announcements to the membership; maintains the CMSS affiliates email list, website/blog, and other social media; solicits materials from officers and membership; sends occasional email updates and announcements to the membership.

Vice-President, Membership and Finance

Maintains the CMSS membership list; processes new memberships and renewals; processes registrations for symposia; assists with the planning for symposia with particular emphasis on financial transactions; recruits election coordinator and assists with ballot distribution to current membership.

Vice-President, Digital Resources

Responsible for web design and digital communication, including updating the CMSS website, Facebook page, and other on-line communications as needed.