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SPJ Campaign Guidelines

These election campaign guidelines should be followed by all candidates for the SPJ national board of directors. Candidates with questions should the SPJ Nominations Committee Chairman or the Executive Director.

1. There will be no candidate speeches during regional meetings, other than those given by candidates for regional director.

2. Candidate speeches will be no more than three minutes in duration and will be delivered during the opening business meeting. Speeches will be streamed live and available on the election home page as soon as possible after they are delivered.

3. No signs may be posted in the hotel or convention site.

4. Headquarters staff will format and send members emails three times during the election cycle for the candidates. Headquarters staff will send emails according to the following timeline:
— The same week candidate profiles are published in Quill magazine. Candidates should submit this email no later than two weeks before Quill is published.
— Sometime during the election cycle after profiles are published in Quill, but earlier than four weeks before convention. Staff will have one week to format and send these emails.
— One week before the election. This email should be submitted no later than two weeks before the opening business session.

5. Current national SPJ board members should remain neutral in all elections.

6. No one may use the membership database for political purposes.

Additional notes

— The order in which candidates give speeches will be based on the alphabetical order of their last names.
— While candidates may not post signs in the convention hotel, fliers, buttons and other literature may be distributed. Contact SPJ Executive Director (or designee) to arrange for display space near the convention’s registration area or trade show.
— All candidates will receive information about board and committee meetings before the convention. Candidates are encouraged to attend board and committee meetings that are applicable to their prospective position.
— Candidates may purchase advertising space in Quill, the convention program or the convention newspaper at rates discounted 50 percent off the current rate card. Contact SPJ Executive Director (or designee) for information.

How to Run

Interested candidates should indicate their intention to run by emailing Nominations Committee Chairman Hagit Limor at hlimor@wcpo.com and Executive Director Joe Skeel at jskeel@spj.org. There is no formal deadline to declare candidacy, but candidates wanting to run a profile in Quill ahead of the convention must make an end-of-June copy deadline.