Hi, everyone. I'm Stephanie Pallante from the Cigna Group and I'm joined today with Calvin Williams. Hello, everyone. I'm Calvin Williams with Indian River State College. And we want to thank you for your interest in serving as a leader in NACE. In this video, we'll share perspective on how to make the most of nominating yourself for service on the NACE Board of Directors by providing some practical and insightful information that will help you with this process. NACE values community, belonging, integrity, innovation, and impact. As such, we look for a diverse group of leaders who share these values from both the college and employer sides of our membership. Together, they influence and drive NACE's future. As you prepare your self nomination and application, think broadly about your qualifications and experience, competencies that relate to your experiences, and professional interest areas that relate to serving on NACE's board. Before we get started on a detailed review of the components of the self nomination and application form, we'd like to offer some general suggestions for you to keep in mind. The board of directors is representative of our profession as a whole of more than 17,000 members strong. Our members are diverse and represent diverse organizations and needs. NACE lives its core value of belonging. And as such, we are especially committed to finding a single diverse slate of candidates from a broad range of profiles that includes—but not limited to—gender, ethnicity, geography, sexual orientation and size and type of organization. Due to the importance of representation, diversity, and belonging, we have designed the beginning stages of our process to be a blind process. This means that when reviewing your application materials, the committee will not have access to your name, organization or demographic information until the final stages. All initial screening is done without identifiable information to maintain the integrity of our process. As such, we ask throughout your written answers to refrain from sharing the name of your employer, names of people, and other potential identifiers. You'll want to cite specific examples of active engagement in leadership experiences you've had that highlight your skills as well as your impact. We need you to translate those examples for us to see applicability to NACE leadership. At the end of the process, all candidates will be asked to complete a short video interview with one question: "What is your motivation for applying? And why are you interested in serving on the NACE board of directors?" Now, let's take a look at the nomination form. The top of the form asks for you to share a list of experiences with NACE. We want to understand if you understand NACE, our profession, and if you're familiar with how associations function. This is critical for a leader of our board. You must have familiarity with us in like-minded organizations. We encourage you to include a broad range of experiences on committees, volunteering, presenting, etc. You have the space here for 250 words per question. So take advantage of providing a solid listing of the minimum requirement. Know that it is not necessary for you to list dates or for it to be an exhaustive list. Your name, title and organization will have already been pre-added to the form for you. From there, you will need to include a description of your organization, years in the profession, years as a NACE member and your LinkedIn profile URL. Again, this information will only be revealed in the final stages of our process, not in the initial review of applications. Members interested in serving as directors on the board will need to select either college director or employer director. Members who have served on the board of directors previously are eligible to apply for an officer position and can apply for either vice chair, chair or both. This section of the self nomination form is critically important since it gives you the opportunity to share a detailed picture of your knowledge, skills and related accomplishments that support the leadership competencies expected from the NACE board. Each of the competencies is listed and described. The competencies being considered are: leadership, communication, skills, critical thinking, strategic planning, and decision making, teamwork and collaboration, equity and inclusion, and career and self development. There are specific questions for each competency that will allow you the opportunity to highlight how you've demonstrated those competencies through your experiences and accomplishments. You have space for 250 words for each of these responses. And we recommend you address the expectations of the competency descriptions with examples in your answers. Be sure to include information on results of your efforts whenever possible and try not to list any identifying information in your responses. And definitely don't try to repeat examples. The best written responses are those that are thoughtful, descriptive, and provide the reviewers with a good understanding of what it would be like to work with you. There is a question that asks for three areas of professional interest. This information is helpful in sharing the scope and depth of your interests and efforts in areas that matter to NACE members. This is a great opportunity to differentiate your specific areas of expertise and accomplishments. Everyone has different interests. Examples could be: technology in the recruitment process, equity in career development, virtual modality impacts, STEM students and candidates, mentorship, internship programs and so many others. We want to know what interests you. We have included a question regarding your view of the challenges of NACE college and employer members. As you can imagine the NACE board of directors keeps an eye to the future and works to anticipate what lies ahead. This helps to shape member value and the programs and services we deliver. In addition to you identifying what you see as the challenges, we want to know how you are currently addressing these in your work as you prepare for the future. Additionally, you'll find our DEI pledge. We're serious about our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as our commitments to anti-racism. Serving as a leader on NACE requires not only demonstration of the competencies, but a strong commitment to furthering these ideas. Now that we've reviewed the self nomination form, we want to share a few final thoughts to keep in mind. You can find additional background information online including FAQs about the self nomination process and responsibilities of board members. The application form will automatically save as you complete sections, so you can come back later to complete it if necessary. Keep in mind that there are four director positions and two officer positions elected each year. Though not everyone who applies in a given year gets selected, many of our board members and officers have applied multiple times before being selected. Some years are more competitive than others. Do your best in application process and don't give up If you're not selected the first time you apply. There is no single path to board membership. If you review the profiles of current and past directors, you will see they each have their own unique set of NACE engagement and leadership experiences before they came to the board. With that in mind, leverage your own set of experiences and accomplishments both on the self nomination form and as you continue to pursue NACE leadership opportunities in the future. Finally, be sure to submit your application form on time, before the deadline of the submission expires. Also, you will receive an email from Cecelia Nader at NACE with instructions for completing your video interview questions at the end of October. We wish you all the best as you move forward and consider a NACE board leadership role. There are so many amazing leaders in our profession, and we hope many of you will decide to submit your application. We're excited to hear from you and good luck.
