Students have put in a lot of time and effort into creating engaging extracurricular spaces to meet and enjoy common interests. When students move on from Langara, it would be nice if the clubs they started or led could be taken over by continuing or new students. There are a lot of resources like social media sites, printed materials, planned activities, etc. that can be passed on from year to year.
To help ensure clubs continue when executives leave, processes for recruiting and selecting new executives before the beginning of the new academic year need to be established. This was the subject of a meeting club executives and active members held in March 2026.
The first point of discussion at this meeting was on the benefits of electing executives for the next school year. The most widely agreed upon benefit was that this was a democratic means of choosing the leadership of the club. Many students noted that this would ensure the club’s continuity, sustainability, and survival. This is also a way to ensure dedicated, trusted, and responsible executives are selected on the basis of merit, and to ensure fairness, transparency, and harmony in the selection process. Some students pointed out that this would improve their club’s structure and increase member involvement.
The second point of discussion concerned determining voting rights, i.e., who should be able to vote for executives of a given club for the next academic year. Half of the attendees believed that all active members should have the right to select the executive team for the next academic year. Closely related to this response were the 23% of responses that focussed on involvement, e.g., “The right to vote is earned through attendance and participation in the events.” In total, 73% favoured having all active members take part in selecting the executives for the coming year.
A vocal minority of 27% preferred having new executives selected by current executives only. Some current executives expressed concern that they may not be elected if the membership were allowed to vote. Some doubted that their members were informed enough to make a decision and worried that votes would be based on popularity rather than ability and commitment.
In the end, club executives and active members agreed that before the beginning of a new academic year, or when an executive position becomes vacant, nominations for the position will be opened. If more than one member is nominated, elections will be held.
The following are procedures to ensure a smooth nomination and election process:
- Before nominations are opened, the outgoing club executives will submit a list of current members eligible to vote to the Student Life Coordinator (SLC).
- The club executive will send a link to the nomination form to all active members. Any disagreements over the membership list will be brought to the Student Life Coordinator for mediation.
- The nomination period should be at least one week (7 days), but may be longer.
- If at the end of the nomination period, there is more than one nominee, elections by online secret ballot will be held.
- If there are two nominees, the candidate with the most votes wins the election. If there are more than two candidates, a ranked ballot (instant run-off) system will be used. The elections will be conducted by the Student Life Coordinator and reviewed by another Student Life staff member.
- The voting period should be at least one week (7 days), but may be longer.
- Results will be communicated with the membership within 1 day of the end of the election period.