Hi Everyone,
I'm the current Chair of the Pacific Northwest Section, and at the end of the term will have been Chair for 10 out of the last 28 years, 9 out of the last 20, and on the Committee for 32 out of the last 33 years as Chair, Vice-Chair, Treasurer, or Committee member. I also celebrated last year (in a low-key fashion) 50 years as a sound company owner/operator, and have posted here and on its predecessor since I joined the Internet around 1995. And have enjoyed being part of this community ever since.
When the AES announced its slate of candidates for the next election, which starts in May, I noticed a rule that anyone can nominate themselves or be nominated for any office and get on the ballot if that's done by 100 Members or more.
I thought, "Shoot, 100 should be no problem," so I've done that, and for President.
Go big or go home, right?
As a result of the above experiences and others, I know some people and have asked them to nominate me. Many have, including names you'd recognize, but I'm realizing how many 100 is, and the detail is that the nominators can't be anybody, they have to be full voting Members (the capital "M" defines full voting members) of the AES, which EXCLUDES Associate and Student members but includes Life Members and maybe Fellows. Not sure if there are any Fellows who are not Members.
The sweet part is that Associates have a path to become Members, and while that path has been somewhat mysterious to many people of my acquaintance, this gives me an opportunity to tell you how to upgrade your membership if you are interested. There's no difference in dues, and anything you've paid toward a remaining Associate membership will apply to your remaining term as a new Member.*
The steps for nominating by Members are simple, and can be done in a few minutes.
The steps for Associates are a little more complicated, in that you first have to fill out a form for upgrade and do some explaining of your experience and provide some references. I'd be fine if you use my name as a reference, and my Member Number is 30576. I bet that Mac, who gave me permission to post this here, would also let you use him a reference. You'll have to ask him, though, and for his member number. Maybe other people will post their names and member numbers, and you can pick and choose your references.
This is probably already long enough. I've put the upgrade and nomination steps in
my nomination campaign document, which also has how to find your member grade and number.
That document is way too long, but I have a lot to say and different people will be interested in different parts. I felt all needed to be said.
Thanks for reading this, and I hope you are moved to send the nomination email if you're qualified. Note that this doesn't obligate you to vote for me in the election, although I hope you will. There'll be no campaigning like this during the election per the rules, so you might not be hearing from me about this unless I don't get to the 100 mark, in which case it will be a learning experience for a lot of people who are watching this. Oh, and no one has ever been successful getting to 100 in the history of the AES, so that makes it interesting, too.
Thanks!
* I think I've learned that because of this write-in effort, they seem to have beefed up their approval process so that nominators can vote by the deadline, which is April 26th at 5pmEDT/2pmPDT/whatever your local time will be. Someone told me they were approved in 2 hours, another took overnight. So it can be quick. If you ever considered upgrading, now might be the time regardless of the nominating. That's in the link, too.
