RAS AdCom Elections

The Bylaws of the Society provide that six new members out of the eighteen elected members of the Administrative Committee (AdCom) are elected each year by the membership of the Society. Each member serves a three-year term and can be re-elected for one additional term. Any higher-grade member of the Society is eligible to serve.

Nominations

All higher-grade members plus graduate students may nominate candidates and vote. Nominations, including self-nominations, may be made by contacting the Society at ras@ieee.org. All nominations are forwarded to the Nominations Committee which will select a set of candidates for the election from each geographical area from the set of nominees.

Candidates may also petition to be on the ballot. All persons who, by the deadline, submit petitions with valid signatures and IEEE member numbers with at least 2% of the year-end voting membership will be placed on the ballot. A Call for Nominations is published in the March issue of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine and provides further information on the nominations procedures, including the annual deadline for nominations.

AdCom Geographical Distribution

The standing rules on nominations and election of AdCom members, in the Policies and Procedures of the Society, also identify the following RAS Geographical Areas:

  • RAS Geographical Area 1 = IEEE Regions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 , 7, 9 (Americas)
  • RAS Geographical Area 2 = IEEE Region 8 (Europe, Middle East & Africa)
  • RAS Geographical Area 3 = IEEE Region 10 (Asia & Pacific)

Six of the eighteen AdCom elected members will be elected at-large. Twelve of the eighteen AdCom elected members will equally represent the three RAS Geographical Areas.

During each annual election, there will be two vacancies for at-large representatives and one vacancy for each RAS Geographical Area. One additional Geographical Area vacancy will rotate among the three over a three-year period so that six new AdCom members are elected each year.

AdCom Election Process

In order to give RAS members more direct representation, the voting members from each of the three Geographical Areas elect their own representatives. The two at-large representatives are elected by all of the voting members of RAS.

In order to increase diversity among AdCom members across Geographical Areas and countries, three additional rules were adopted, and are evident in the election procedures.

RAS ELECTION DETAILS

Each RAS voting member receives a ballot according to the member's geographic area. Each member receives a ballot consisting of two parts.

PART 1 - CHOOSING THE AT-LARGE REPRESENTATIVE

All candidates from all three GAs are listed. Each member can vote for up to two candidates.
1. The candidate receiving the most votes is declared At-Large Rep1.
2. The candidate receiving the next highest number of votes, from a different GA than that of At-Large Rep1, is then declared At-Large Rep2.
3. If there is a tie, the RAS President will choose the elected member from the tied candidates.

PART 2 - CHOOSING THE GA-X REPRESENTATIVE(S)

All candidates from GA-X are listed.
1. After Part 1 of the ballots have been tallied and the newly elected at-large Adcom Reps have been selected,
2. The countries represented by the newly constituted 14 elected voting Adcom members (the 2 newly elected At-Large Reps, and the 12 Adcom members in the middle of their terms) are then determined, and
3. A table listing the total number of elected voting Adcom members for each country (as projected for the subsequent year) is made.
4. If GA-X has one vacancy, then each member can vote for up to two candidates. Any candidate from a country that satisfies BOTH of the following two conditions is considered ineligible to become GA-X Rep1:
        4.1. The country has five or more Adcom members as listed in the table;
        4.2. One of the newly elected At-Large Reps is from that country.
5. Among the eligible candidates, the top vote-getter is declared GA-X Rep1.
6. If GA-X has two vacancies, then each member can vote for up to three candidates. Any candidate from a country that satisfies BOTH of the following two conditions is considered ineligible to become GA-X Rep1 or Rep2:
       6.1. The country has five or more Adcom members as listed in the table;
       6.2. One of the newly elected At-Large Reps is from that country.
7. The top eligible vote-getter is declared GA-X Rep1. The next highest eligible vote-getter from a different country than that of GA-X Rep1 is declared GA-X Rep2.


Further details on the standing rules for the nominations and election of AdCom Members may be found in Section 1 of the IEEE RAS Policies and Procedures Manual.

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