Dear Members of the European Society for Textual Scholarship,
With this message, we are opening a call for nominations for up to four positions on the ESTS Board. The term for the vacancies will start on 28 April 2025 at our upcoming conference in Tours and will be for four years (2025-2028). Board Members may serve a second consecutive term of four years.
Responsibilities
Board members help steer the direction the ESTS is taking by appointing Officers, deciding on matters pertaining to the Society’s activities (such as our conference and the journal Variants), and allocating the Society’s funds. For more detailed information about the responsibilities of Board members, please refer to the bylaws (esp. section 3).
The ESTS Board generally convenes at least once a year at a Board meeting organised during the Society’s annual conference. While Board members are greatly encouraged to attend these meetings in person, that is not strictly required. Provisions can be made to allow Board members to attend the meeting remotely when necessary. In between conferences, Board members communicate and decide on more urgent matters via e-mail.
Eligibility
To be eligible to stand for election for these vacancies, candidates must:
- be considered a ‘Member in Good Standing’ of the Society (see below);
- be supported for nomination by at least one Member of the Society;
- confirm their willingness to stand for election by sending an e-mail with the required documentation (detailed below) to the Secretary of the ESTS before the deadline.
Note on ‘Members in Good Standing’
For this election, eligible candidates are considered a ‘Member in Good Standing’ when they have paid their ESTS membership fee by bank transfer, either in 2024 or 2025 (up to the expiration date of this call for nominations).
At the ESTS 2024 conference in Budapest, membership fees were paid separately from the conference registration. As a result, registered attendees need to attach proof of payment of their membership fee to be eligible to stand for election. Prospective candidates not currently counted as Members in Good Standing can still make themselves eligible by paying their membership fee before the deadline and attaching proof of payment to their nomination. For more information about general ESTS Membership, please refer to: https://textualscholarship.eu/membership/
Note on ‘Support from another Member of the Society’
For this eligibility criterium, mentioning the name and e-mail address of another Member of the ESTS will suffice; supporting members do not necessarily need to be cc:d in the nomination e-mail. Be aware, however, that supporting members may be contacted to confirm their support.
If you do not personally know any other members of ESTS who may support your nomination, feel free to contact individual Board members or send a message to mailto:board@textualscholarship.eu to present your case. Board members will be happy to support viable, enthusiastic candidates.
Members of the Society are allowed to support multiple candidates simultaneously.
Nominations
To ensure the effective functioning of the Board, we particularly encourage applications from candidates who are committed to taking an active role on the Board. Given the Board’s current composition, we also encourage proposals from people of colour, and other minorities in Europe.
Nominations should be sent to the Society’s Secretary, Elsa Pereira, by Friday, 10 January 2025. Valid nominations should include:
1) a brief Letter of Motivation confirming the willingness to stand for election and informing of the candidate’s background and intentions;
2) the name of another Member of the ESTS who supports the nomination;
3) proof of payment of the ESTS 2024 or the ESTS 2025 Membership fee.
In the case that more eligible candidates come forward than there are vacancies in the Board, we will organise an election where each Member of the Society can cast their votes on their preferred candidates. Members have one vote each for each vacancy on the Board.
More information about the election process and the responsibilities of the Board can be found in the Society’s bylaws. Further questions may be addressed to the Society’s Secretary, Elsa Pereira.
Please take this opportunity to consider contributing to the European Society for Textual Scholarship by becoming part of its organisation.
ESTS 