The applicable legislation concerning the Nominating Committee is in Part 5 of the Rule Book, Article 505.2.3 (page 84) as follows:
505.2.3 - The Zone Committee shall act as the Nominating Committee. The committee shall canvass qualified and interested persons and present one or more candidates for each office to the national office by August 1 of the year in which elections are held. Additional candidates may be nominated at the annual meeting by two members of the House of Delegates, provided the nominee(s) gives written consent.
Qualification Criteria for Candidates for Office
The nominating committee's evaluation of candidates is based on the information gathered from the candidate questionnaires, two (2) personal references, and candidate evaluations.
The candidate evaluations are filled out by the chairs of committees the candidate has worked on and the candidates' LMSC chairs. If the prospective evaluator is also a candidate, or if the candidate is a committee chair or a current Executive Committee Officer, then the evaluation will be done be other USMS personnel who have worked with or supervised the candidate. This will be determined by the nominating committee on a case-by-case basis.
When the nominating committee reviews candidates' qualifications, the following criteria shall be used:
1) Candidates shall be registered members of United States Masters Swimming, Inc. (USMS) for the year 2001.
2) Candidates shall have attended, as a delegate, more than one (1) full USMS National Convention.
3) Candidates shall have demonstrated leadership in USMS by holding various positions in the corporation. None of the positions shall be given weight over any others. These positions include, but are not limited to: a) Executive Committee Member, b) National Committee Chair (Standing or Ad-Hoc), d) Special Assignment, e) Project Leader in Committee, f) Zone Representative, or g) any other position which requires leadership abilities.
Procedures for Evaluation of Candidates
When the nominating committee reviews candidates' qualifications, the following procedures shall be followed:
1) The Zone Chair shall not vote unless there is a tie vote on a candidate.
2) All candidates shall be evaluated by the described criteria regardless of what office they are running for.
3) The criteria for evaluation shall be applied to all candidates in an even-handed manner.
4) When in doubt about the qualifications of a candidate, vote to put that candidate on the slate and let the House of Delegates decide whether to elect that person.
