Title: Nominations for Section Leadership Positions

Author:

Section/SPIG: Maternal and Child Health

Issue Date:

Please consider nominating yourself or other section members to these leadership positions. Deadline is Feb. 18, 2005.

Maternal & Child Health Vacancies:

Two Section Councilors

Position Description: The Section Council is comprised of the Chair, Chair-elect, immediate Past Chair, Secretary, Secretary-elect and six elected members (Section Councilors). Section Councilors serve for three years. The officers and Section Councilors are voting members of the Section Council.
The duties of the Section Council are as follows:

• To provide overall direction to the Section;


• To make general recommendations about the Section's annual priorities;


• To develop Section policies;


• To submit annually to the Governing Council, through the Director of Section Affairs, a report of the transactions of the Section and of the plans of the Section for the succeeding;


• To formulate rules of procedure for the Section;


• To consider and transmit to the Governing Council policy statements originating in the Section;


• To recommend and advise the Executive Board about the deployment of Section members to various Association Boards, Committees and Task Forces; and


• To approve the creation of standing and subject area committees, provide their overall charge, appoint their chairs, and discontinue subject area committees which are no longer needed.


The Section Council meets at least once during the APHA Annual Meeting and once in the spring. Meetings are open to all interested Section members. Although the Chair is responsible for developing the agenda and for communicating the agenda to the Secretary for dissemination prior to the meeting, a member of the MCH Section may suggest new items of business, preferably to the Chair prior to the meeting, but also at the meeting itself.


4 Governing Councilors

Position Description: The Section elects representatives to the Governing Council for two-year terms. The number of representatives is determined by the size of the Section membership in relation to the entire APHA membership. (The composition and functions of the Governing Council are described in the APHA Constitution, Articles IV and VI.) The Section's representatives to the Governing Council are responsible for the review of MCH-related policy statements. Prior to the APHA Annual Meeting, a Governing Councilor (the “Whip”) selected by the Section Chair organizes the review by the Governing Councilors. The Councilors meet with the Section Council before the start of the Annual Meeting to review the policy statements the Governing Council will consider and to determine the Section's position on them. The Section and Governing Councilors also develop a consensus on candidates for APHA offices. During the Annual Meeting, the Governing Councilors attend Governing Council meetings, hearings sponsored by the Governing Council, the Section's business meeting, the Section Council meeting, and if possible, the spring meeting of the Section Council.


For more information please contact JoAnne Fischer at <joanne@momobile.org>.

During the Annual Meeting, it was approved to change language within APHA bylaws, therefore now stating that individuals must be a current member of APHA & the Section as of Feb. 1 to be eligible to run.

In an effort to increase participation in the Section Elections, APHA is creating a 2005 Section Election Web site (linked to the APHA home page), which would include a contact list of the Nomination Chairs and the nomination forms. For consistency they have established a Feb. 18, 2005 deadline.