The 1997-98 AAA Nominations Committee met at the Chicago O’Hare Hilton on Friday, February 13, 1998. The Committee was chaired by Jerry Weygandt, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Members of the Committee were: Andrew Bailey, Jr., University of Illinois; Robert Capettini, San Diego State University; Susan Haka, Michigan State University; Katherine Schipper, University of Chicago; Mary Stone, University of Alabama; and Terry Warfield, University of Wisconsin-Madison. All members of the Committee were present.

Because the nominations process is one of the most important activities of the Association, the Committee cast a wide net in seeking candidates.

Candidates were identified through the following process.

Call for Nominations
call for nominations was placed in the Early Fall 1997 issue of Accounting Education News (AEN). The AEN is included in electronic form on the AAA Homepage. In addition, the Call for Nominations was included in the “What’s New?” section of the AAA Homepage.

Solicitation of Nominations
The Committee Chair sent letters to all Department of Accounting heads and chairs listed in the Hasselback directory; the past five years’ Executive Committee and Council Members; and all past presidents. Each letter recipient was asked to submit nominations. Department chairs were also asked to distribute the letter to their faculty in hopes of receiving additional nominations.

The Committee received numerous outstanding nominations.

Nominations Committee Meeting Processes

Preliminary Discussion
The Nominations Committee process began with a discussion of the officer positions open for nominations. The Committee members considered the duties and responsibilities of each position as well as the individual characteristics and qualifications desired for a person occupying the position. The Committee considered the long standing tradition that president-elect nominees have previously served on the Executive Committee. The Committee members agreed that this is a generally sound practice. In addition to position duties, issues of continuity and service to the AAA, as well as issues of representation and diversity, were discussed by the Nominating Committee.

Nominations and Voting
The president-elect position was considered first with individuals not receiving the final nomination added to the list of available nominees for other positions. This process was applied throughout our deliberations. The positions were considered in the following order: president-elect; director of publications-elect; director of research; vice president; director of education-elect; council members-at-large (2).

After reviewing the many nominations received from AAA members, each Nominations Committee member placed nominees on the list for consideration until all Committee members agreed that all of the candidates requiring consideration had been presented. The committee discussed the reasons why each nominee should be given consideration. The AAA service files for all nominees were available and consulted during the meeting.

After complete and open discussion, a preliminary ballot was taken, and candidates receiving no votes or few votes were removed from consideration until a single candidate received a majority of all votes cast. Following identification of each nominee for office, the Committee discussed potential back-up candidates should the first choice refuse the nomination. This process was followed for each office until the nominations process was completed. The Committee had a wealth of highly qualified members to choose from. The choices were difficult because only a few can be called to serve in a given year. We believe the nominees are an outstanding group of AAA members who will serve all of the membership of the organization.

Nominations List

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