The 2011 CSTA Election included 5 open Board of Directors positions. The CSTA elections concluded May 2, 2011. Here are the new members of the CSTA Board of Directors.

Patrice Gans: K-8 Representative
A K-8 classroom teacher who is currently teaching or promoting computer science at the pre-high school level.

Karen Lang: 9-12 Representative
Ria Galanos: 9-12 Representative
A 9-12 classroom teacher who is currently teaching computer science at the high school level.

Mindy Hart: At-Large Representative
An educator with responsibilities for K-12 CS education.

Dave Reed: College Faculty Representative
A college level faculty or instructor of computer science. College in this case is defined as an institution of higher education that has primarily a teaching focus and not a research focus. It may include community colleges and four-year institutions.

The 2011 CSTA Election included several proposed changed to the CSTA bylaws. CSTA members passed all of the proposed amendments. Click below for complete details of the bylaw changes:




Key Dates:

Nominations deadline: February 1, 2011
Ballot distribution: April 4, 2011
Voting deadline: May 2, 2011
Election results: May 16, 2011


Criteria the nominations and elections committee use in evaluating a candidate:

The nominations and elections committee members read through the candidates' CVs, position statement, and responses to the four questions. Each committee member individually grades each candidate in each of the following areas: experience in the position being applied for, standing within CSTA, professional reputation, evidence of support of CSTA's mission, experience in working with K-12 CS/IT education, previous volunteer leadership CSTA experience, previous participation in CSTA events, understanding of the core values of CSTA, the extent to which the candidate's goals align with those of CSTA, and evidence that the candidate is known to be a team player. After individually grading each candidate against these criteria, the committee meets to discuss differences in ratings by the individual committee members and to come to agreement on the top two candidates for each position.


Call for Nominations

Nominations are now closed.

Election Process:

For the first time, the election will be conducted using a commercial, online election service. All CSTA members in good standing as of April 1, 2011 will receive an email providing a personalized link to the election site. This move is being made in order to provide a more convenient, secure, and private election process for all CSTA members.

Convenience: In addition to saving considerable money on mailings, an online election enables voters to be better informed and vote in a clear and easy manner. On March 4, one month before the election begins, the slate of Board of Directors candidates, their personal statements, and additional referenda will be posted on the CSTA Web site. These materials will remain on the site for review by voters until the end of the election. On April 4, each CSTA member will receive an email with a personalized link to the election Web site. Candidate profiles and bylaws referenda will be viewable on the online ballot as well. A voter will enter his or her votes via mouse clicks, and will receive a summary of all votes for verification before making his or her final submission. For any voters who forget to vote, an email reminder will automatically be sent one week prior to the close of the election.

Security: The election service selected by the CSTA Board, ElectionBuddy, is committed to preserving the integrity of its elections. Only current CSTA members will receive emails with personalized links to the election site. Given the length of the randomly generated link addresses, it is extremely unlikely that anyone who is not a CSTA member could guess a valid link and pose as a legitimate voter. Once a voter has completed his or her ballot online, the link is invalidated and any attempt to access the election site using that link will fail (and notify the voter of that failure). Any voter who finds that his/her personal link has been compromised will be instructed to contact the Elections and Nominations Committee to resolve the issue.

Privacy: The privacy of each voter is also maintained by the ElectionBuddy service. The CSTA Board has no access to individual voter records. The system does keep track of which CSTA members have not voted, so that a reminder can be automatically emailed, but this information is not accessible until a sufficiently large number of votes have been tallied to ensure anonymity. The Elections and Nominations Committee reserves the right to review this information when it becomes available in order to resolve any problems that may be reported.

We are confident that this election process will ensure the integrity of the election as well as provide convenience to voters, and welcome any feedback from CSTA members.