Last Updated on March 2, 2016 by Area 53 Web Team
In the early years of the Conference Structure, area assemblies were held only to elect new area officers and a new delegate. The Third Legacy pamphlet offered guidelines for the first election assembly. You might find them amusing.
Each group could select one Group Representative to attend an assembly that was closest to the group’s location. Group Representatives later came to be called General Service Representatives or GSRs. Group Representatives placed an “A” next to their name on the assembly registration forms to indicate that they were available to serve on the area committee. This determined the pool of nominees for elections. Nominations were not allowed from the floor and all voting was by written ballot. The first item of assembly business was to create an area map divided into districts. This determined the number of Committeemen to be elected – one for each district. Committeemen later came to be called Committee Members and then District Committee Members or DCMs.
The entire assembly voted in the election of Committeemen. Elections were by plurality and ended when a nominee received at least 25% of the total votes cast. The first three Committeemen elected automatically became the Area Chair, Treasurer and Secretary in that order.
The delegate election required a 2/3 majority of the total votes cast. If a 2/3 majority could not be obtained, the delegate was chosen by lot from among all the Committeemen whether they were standing for the delegate election or not. Each area determined the number of times to vote prior to settling the election by lot. Needless to say, much has changed since then.