A Message from the Alumni Association about election issues

Affiliate Group Leaders:

As you may know, elections are currently underway for membership on Penn State's Board of Trustees and the Penn State Alumni Association’s Alumni Council.  It is always reassuring to know that there is strong interest and willingness of the alumni to seek election to these positions.  The Penn State Alumni Association encourages all of our members to participate in elections for Alumni Council and the Board of Trustees. 

It has come to our attention that some candidates have approached groups seeking endorsements; please know the Penn State Alumni Association and affiliate groups are not permitted to endorse or imply endorsement of candidates in any way – whether for internal or external elections.

Below are the policies governing how affiliate groups of the Penn State Alumni Association may participate in the Board of Trustees and Alumni Council elections.  Please note that these policies cover both traditional print publications as well as electronic media (including e-mail, listservs, and Web sites).  Therefore, it would not be appropriate to utilize any listservs and/or mailing lists to distribute information concerning an individual's candidacy.  The guidelines translate to the fact that our groups cannot share member contact information with outside groups or communicate with membership supporting or criticizing political or internal Alumni Council or Board of Trustees candidates (includes web postings, listservs, emails w/ group email address, newsletters, etc.).

We encourage you to inform your membership that elections are coming and ask eligible members to VOTE during Alumni Council and Board of Trustees elections!  

Because affiliate groups (albeit to a large degree self-governing) are special interest arms of the general Alumni Association, because the publisher of all alumni publications is the Executive Board, and because the affiliate groups do receive a portion of their budgets from the Alumni Association, the political policies of the general body should prevail among these constituent societies.

Therefore, it is specified that if any affiliate group chooses to publicize the elections in any of its publications (print or electronic), the following rules shall be observed:

1.      Inform alumni of nomination and election dates and procedures.

2.      Introduce candidates by name, class date, curriculum, place of residence and job title.

3.      Introduce all candidates, not just the ones from your constituency.

4.      Encourage alumni to vote.

5.      Give equal space and treatment to all candidates so as not to appear to be campaigning as an organization for any one nominee.

If you have any questions please let the Volunteer Services Team know.

Regards,

Kevin, Tom, Cheryl, and Charlene

Tom Hammond '00
Penn State Alumni Association
Associate Director of Volunteer Services
Hintz Family Alumni Center
 University Park, PA  16802
1.800.548.LION, option 3
www.alumni.psu.edu