Call for Nominations
In advance of the 2024 AGM (which will be held at online on Thursday 11 April), elections will be held for the following posts:
Current incumbents of these positions may stand for re-election if not disbarred by the Constitution’s limits on length of continuous service in Committee posts, nor by clauses relating to particular roles.
Deadline for nominations: Wednesday 28 February 2024 (see below for further instructions).
Treasurer – three-year term
The Treasurers are responsible for the Association’s accounts, and play an important role in directing and implementing BAAS’s strategy. In addition to reporting on the accounts to the membership and to the Charity Commission, the Treasurers’ duties include disbursement of grants and awards, overseeing the payroll, and working closely with the Association’s accountants and administrators to maintain the financial health and integrity of the Association. Moreover, the Treasurers, by overseeing and shaping the disbursement of Association funds, help BAAS fulfil its strategic priorities; namely, advancing the discipline in the UK and beyond, and promoting a more sustainable, inclusive, and accessible approach to American Studies pedagogy and research. The successful candidate will work alongside Catherine Armstrong, whose term ends in 2025. Interested parties are welcome to discuss the role (and its division) with Catherine Armstrong, catherine.armstrong@baas.ac.uk.
Ordinary Member – three-year term
Ordinary Members will be invited to sit on one of the four BAAS sub-committees: Publications and Knowledge Exchange, Awards, Conferences, or Development and Education. As part of their portfolio, they will be encouraged to contribute to and report back on new and ongoing BAAS projects. Interested parties are welcome to discuss the role with our chair, Lydia Plath (chair@baas.ac.uk).
Postgraduate Representative – two-year term
The Postgraduate Representatives promote the interests of BAAS’s postgraduate taught and research members. Together the Postgraduate Representatives work closely with the BAAS Executive Committee to represent the thoughts and concerns of the wider postgraduate community. The position is for two years and therefore it is preferable that the candidate is not in their final year of postgraduate study. In the second year of their term, each Postgraduate Representative will be responsible for organising the BAAS Postgraduate Conference, either themselves or by selecting and guiding conference organisers. Candidates for Postgraduate representative must be registered postgraduate students. A Postgraduate representative who has completed one full term in office may not stand for re-election as Postgraduate representative. The successful candidate will work alongside Riziki Millanzi whose term ends in 2025. Interested parties are welcome to discuss the role (and its division) with the outgoing Postgraduate representative, Emma Hall, emma.hall@baas.ac.uk.
Schools Lead – three year term
The Schools Lead is an Ordinary Member responsible for developing and maintaining BAAS’s relationship with schools, FE colleges and teachers. They will sit on the Development and Education subcommittee, and will be responsible for overseeing the Schools Newsletter and the organisation of the annual Schools Conference, as well as developing and contributing to schools-related projects. Interested parties are welcome to discuss the role with Andrew Fearnley, andrew.fearnley@baas.ac.uk.
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Lead
The Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Lead is an Ordinary Member who will work closely with the Officers and Executive Committee to develop and implement strategies that enable BAAS to fulfil its goals to be an inclusive, accessible, transparent, and responsive organisation which proactively champions the needs of its diverse community of members. As all Trustees of BAAS are expected to work to further these goals, the EDI Lead is a strategic leadership role, rather than one having specific operational responsibilities. Interested parties are welcome to discuss the role with our chair, Lydia Plath (chair@baas.ac.uk).
Instructions for Candidates
Nominations should reach us by the strict deadline of 17.00 GMT on Wednesday 28 February 2024. Candidates should email the following information to our Secretary, Dr Kate Ballantyne (secretary@baas.ac.uk), copying in their proposer and seconder as confirmation of their support:
Where possible, the proposer and seconder should not be from the candidate’s own institution.
Your supporting statement should outline your educational background, areas of teaching and/or research interests and your vision for BAAS, and for the role for which you are standing, in the upcoming years. We also ask that those standing for election give consideration to matters of inclusion, accessibility and sustainability in their statements, and include any suggestions for approaches or initiatives in this area.
Those standing for election are expected to be BAAS members and to attend the AGM. We particularly welcome nominations from groups traditionally underrepresented in the Association.
All elected candidates will be made Trustees of BAAS. Trustees are expected to promote and advance the discipline of American Studies in the UK and beyond, and to work to make BAAS an inclusive, accessible, transparent, and responsive organisation which proactively champions the needs of its diverse community of members. All Trustees are required to abide by the BAAS Code of Conduct. All Executive Committee members are expected to contribute to the judging of our annual Awards schemes.
BAAS will reimburse travel (and, where appropriate, accommodation) expenses for attendance at Executive Committee meetings, along with registration costs for the BAAS annual conference and/or the BAAS PG conference for members of the Executive Committee. Currently, most Executive Committee meetings are being held remotely; as part of BAAS’ ongoing commitment to access, inclusion and environmental sustainability, we are likely to conduct a mixture of in-person meetings (coinciding with the annual conference, for instance) and remote meetings.
Election Information
As per the BAAS Constitution (available at https://baas.ac.uk/about/baas-constitution ), if there is more than one candidate for position, an election will be held. BAAS elections will take place via advance electronic voting. There will be no in-person ballot.
Election results will be confirmed at an AGM. The next AGM will take place on 11 April 2024. BAAS members should make every effort to attend the AGM.
