CIRCA Elections on April 20th

Register to Vote!

We are less than three weeks away from the CIRCA Elections, which will be held on April 20th at 8pm in Hamilton 602! This email contains a lot of important information regarding the upcoming elections, so please read it carefully. If you have any questions, please email me at tlz2105@columbia.edu.

Tyler Zimmet
President, CIRCA

Positions up for Election

President

Head Delegate

Marketing Director

Director of International Affairs

Vice President of Academic Affairs

Vice President of Social Affairs

APPLY TO RUN!

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REGISTER TO VOTE!

This year, we are requiring that all CIRCA members register to vote in the upcoming elections. In order to register, please fill out this form.

Registration will close at 6pm on the day of the elections. If you do not register to vote, you may not vote in the elections.

In order to be eligible to vote, you must have, in the 2014-2015 academic year, either staffed CMUNCE, CMUNNY, ESims, or GlobeMUN, traveled to at least one conference, attended at least one academics event, written for either the Columbia Political Review or Now!Here, or served on a Secretariat, editorial board, or any other board within CIRCA.

Even if you are running for a position, you must still register to vote.

**NOTE: If you are studying abroad for the Spring Semester only (in other words, you were at Columbia for Fall 2014), you may fill out an absentee ballot. Even if you are studying abroad, you must still register to vote. Once all of the candidates have been announced, please email me directly your votes (tlz2105@columbia.edu) by 6pm on the day of the election. There is a question on the registration form pertaining to students studying abroad.

APPLY TO RUN!

If you are interested in running for a position, please fill out this form by Monday, April 6th at 11:59pm. Details of the positions up for election can be found below.

Candidates will need to be prepared to give a speech (3 minutes for president, 2 minutes for everything else) explaining why they are qualified for the position, what they would do if elected, and any other salient points. Candidates must also be ready to answer questions from incumbents and the audience. It is possible to run for multiple positions via a "drop down" system. Positions will be voted on in the order they are listed, so candidates who run for an earlier position may run for a later one only if they lose (e.g., a person elected Head Delegate may not then run for VP Social).

If you decide to run for election, please be aware of CIRCA's strict policy against campaigning. You may not advertise you candidacy via flyers, T-shirts, editorials, Facebook, etc., or spend any money on your election (parties, giveaways, straight-up bribery, etc.). Keep your critiques of other candidates within the bounds of CIRCA's ethical code, your self-promotion within the bounds of taste, and your cliquishness within the bounds of other organizations. Candidates who fail to comply with the above policy will no longer be allowed to run for a position.

Members of subsidiary boards should consult with their Secretary-General/VP/Chief of Staff/Editor-in-Chief as to whether they must resign in order to run.

ELECTION PROCEDURE

In order to be considered elected, a candidate must earn over 50% of the general body vote in a closed ballot, instant runoff voting system. Should no one candidate secure over 50% of the vote outright, the candidate receiving the fewest votes will be eliminated and his or her votes redistributed between the remaining candidates. This distribution will be based on the secondary preference listed on each ballot. The outgoing president along with any other senior board members not standing for the position being voted on will tally the votes. As neutral arbiter, the CIRCA president will forfeit their right to vote for any candidate.

**Note that for the Head Delegate position, this system will first be used to elect one Head Delegate, and then members of CIRCA will revote to select the second Head Delegate.

PRESIDENT OF CIRCA

The President of CIRCA is the executive official who, under the ethical code, must be consulted if and before executive action is to be taken by other members of CIRCA. Other board members of the club may take executive action on their own, as long as the consent of the President and other board members is implied. The President is to carry out executive functions, particularly with regards to approving budgets and shaping the larger vision and trajectory of the club. The president will act as the primary liaison with other campus organizations and the administration and will be in constant communication with each member of the board. In addition to larger responsibilities the president is responsible for drafting and sending a weekly message to the general body, and the coordination and administration of weekly executive board meetings. Interested parties who meet the eligibility criteria (to be eligible for president, candidates must have served on the executive board for an academic year) should email tlz2105@columbia.edu ASAP in addition to filling out the Google form by the posted deadline.

HEAD DELEGATE

The Traveling Team shall be captained by two Head Delegates. The Head Delegates' role is to organize and lead the Travel Team in "all non-monetary aspects of conference organization." These include, as per the CIRCA Constitution:

Registration and Team Selection: "Registering for conferences and handling country and committee selection;"

Logistics: "Booking hotels and transportation for the entire team;"

Recruitment: "Conducting simulations to select prospective delegates;"

Liaising with the CIRCA Treasurer: "Relaying to the Treasurer, in a timely manner, all of the financial needs of the Traveling Team, and ensuring where possible that such needs are met;"

Liaising with Columbia where necessary: "Maintaining contact with the Columbia bureaucracy and ensuring that all necessary forms are properly completed and submitted."

Traveling to Conferences: ". . . ensure at least one Head Delegate lead the Traveling Team to every conference on the schedule."

In addition, the Head Delegate(s) should also be prepared to:

Act as ambassadors of CIRCA and Columbia and maintain relations with other delegations and conferences;

Organize and host training sessions for members, and to offer constructive feedback for the team;

Work closely with CMUNNY and CMUNCE to ensure Travel Team initiatives do not overlap and to make use of any common opportunities;

Lay out a vision and objectives for the Travel Team, whether it be in attracting and retaining members, expanding our conference attendance, or winning more delegation awards, and to take concrete steps to achieve these objectives.

Maintain Head Delegate continuity, as per the constitution, should they not be able to attend a conference.

In order to be eligible for Head Delegate, students must be at least a rising sophomore and have traveled to at least two conferences within the last academic year.

Current Head Delegates
Laura Fritsch- lpf2107@columbia.edu
Frank Pellegrino- fjp2119@columbia.edu

MARKETING DIRECTOR

Interested in working with every single entity of CIRCA? Have a personal interest in marketing/public relations? Apply to become Marketing Director to oversee marketing for the entire club. Responsibilities include sponsorship outreach for the entire club, hotel contract negotiations, and overseeing Alumni Relations. As Marketing Director you will coordinate with respective officers of all sections of the organization to oversee sponsorship deals concerning conferences as well as CIRCA in general, and will work with CIRCA alumni via NYCIRCA to connect them with current student members of CIRCA. Along with the President and Treasurer you will have a spot on the Board of NYCIRCA along with 3 alums to help provide the club with positive strategic direction. The purpose of this position is to help expand CIRCA's outreach well beyond campus borders through sponsorships, alumni outreach, and other marketing methods you see fit to help achieve this goal.

All CIRCA members are eligible to apply.

Current Marketing Director
Zunaira Mubasher- zm2198@columbia.edu

DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

The Director of International Affairs is responsible for overseeing Academics, Now!Here, and the Columbia Political Review, and is responsible for holding at least two meetings each month with the VP of Academics, the Editors-in-Chief of both Now!Here and the Columbia Political Review, and the Treasurer of CIRCA. He or she is responsible for representing the opinions and concerns of the aforementioned positions at executive board meetings.

This position, brand new to CIRCA, is an exciting opportunity for an individual to make a lasting impression on the non Model UN divisions of CIRCA. The goal behind this position is to create an opportunity for the non Model UN aspects of CIRCA to really grow and collaborate. Since this position is in its inaugural year, the winner will truly have a unique opportunity to make the position their own and have a lot of flexibility in the direction they want to take this position. And feel free to come up with a better name for this position!

In order to run for this position, the candidate must be either a rising junior or a rising senior. If you are interested in running for this position, please email tlz2105@columbia.edu in addition to filling out the Google form by the posted deadline.

VP OF ACADEMICS

Invite important diplomats, journalists, and academics to campus. Talk to them. Rub their shoulders. Never wash your hand again. CIRCA's Vice President of Academic Affairs is in charge of organizing the annual Speaker Series, cosponsoring other events on campus, organizing off-campus visits, and planning CIRCA's Academic Conference, the Columbia Academic Symposium on International Relations (CASIR). This is your chance to recommend what conferences and events fellow CIRCA members should participate in, invite someone you would like to hear as part of the speaker series and help plan CASIR. Throughout the year we attempt to host speakers who we believe will contribute most to our understanding of international affairs. Through these events not only do we attempt to increase student awareness of political and policy issues that exist in international relations but also to give students the opportunity to policy makers and scholars of international relations, who are involved in the decision making process domestically and internationally.

As a result of the creation of the Director of International Affairs position, beginning in the fall of 2015, the VP of Academics will serve on the International Affairs Board, and may attend and participate in any executive board meetings as non-voting members. If a particular issue arises that concerns their position, if deemed appropriate by both the President of CIRCA and the Director of International Affairs, the VP of Academics will have one vote on the CIRCA executive board. This will be determined on a case-by-case basis. The VP of Academics will still be included on executive board emails, and will be eligible to run for the President of CIRCA.

All CIRCA members are eligible to apply.

Current VP of Academics
Ben Rimland- bjr2131@columbia.edu

VP OF SOCIAL

The position of Vice-President of Social Affairs is responsible for bringing together the different sections of the club, retaining new members and fostering the veterans’ love for CIRCA. The social aspect of the club is, in many ways, a means through which we reward our beloved Circadians for contributing their efforts towards staffing our conferences, travelling to competitions or writing for NowHere!. Therefore, the person who takes on this responsibility should be willing to:

1. Organize diverse weekly activities, such as but not limited to: parties, game nights, themed events, off-campus trips, big/little bonding events, study breaks etc.

2. Organize recruitment activities during both the Fall and Spring semesters to ensure that incoming and returning classes are made aware of all the different possibilities for involvement within the different sectors of the club.

3. Organize Formal, held in the last month of the Spring semester, to celebrate CIRCA’s achievements during the concluding academic year.

4. Hold weekly board meetings to equitably distribute tasks among Social Board members.

5. Liaising with the CIRCA Treasurer to ensure that all proposed activities are appropriately budgeted for.

6. Making yourself available to other sections of the club in planning social events targeting that specific group, e.g. CMUNNY and CMUNCE staff mixers.

7. Designing and ordering CIRCA apparel (such as t-shirts, pants and sweaters) agreed upon by the executive board.

All CIRCA members are eligible to apply.

Current VP of Social
Patrik Kast- pck2117@columbia.edu