NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN
The ELC Sarasota is a single-county Coalition incorporated as a not-for-profit under Florida State Law and is qualified as a tax-exempt organization under Section 501c3 of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986. The purpose of the ELC Sarasota is to ensure cohesiveness, efficiency and an integrated delivery of early childhood care and education services to the children and families of Sarasota County ages birth through 12.
The Board of Directors is a volunteer board, composed of fifteen to twenty-four Directors. Some Directors are mandated by legislation, some are appointed by the Governor, and others are nominated or elected.
ELC Sarasota will have two vacant seats open on its Board of Directors:
The term of office for each Director seat is four years.
ELC Sarasota Board of Directors currently has an average of 6 regularly scheduled meetings per year. Special meetings may be scheduled on an ‘as needed’ basis. As a working Board, members are expected to serve on at least one other Board Committee, help in the promotion and outreach of the ELC Sarasota mission and vision, and participate in Coalition events and activities. A detailed outline of Board member responsibilities is given to each member during an Orientation session delivered to each Board Member at the start of their term of service.
Providers interested in serving on the ELC Sarasota Board of Directors in the capacity of a representative of a private for profit child care provider (including family child care home providers) and faith-based child care provider must currently be a Voluntary Prekindergarten Program provider or School Readiness provider in good standing with the Coalition. **Please note, you must be a private for profit child care provider to be eligible for the private for profit seat. You must be a faith-based child care provider to be eligible for the faith-based seat.
Persons may nominate themselves or be nominated by someone else. However, all nominations must be made on a nomination e-form and be submitted via the ELC Sarasota website. In order to be included in the final slate of candidates, the nominee must accept the nomination.
All nomination forms must be received electronically by the date and time indicated in the Election Process Timeline (see here). The ELC Sarasota will not be responsible for nominations not received due to the fault of email transmissions.
The new Director will be elected from the slate of candidates developed from those nominated. Voting will be handled electronically only. Voting will begin on November 14th, 2023 at 3pm.
Election will be by plurality vote not by majority vote. Meaning, the candidate with the highest vote total will be elected to the Board seat. The Election procedure will be administered by ELC Sarasota staff and certified by the Board Secretary. The election results will be ratified by the Board and announced by the Chair at the ELC Sarasota Board of Director’s regular scheduled meeting on February 19, 2024 at 3:00 pm (The meeting is open to anyone who wishes to attend). The election results are not considered official until ratified by the Board.
In the rare case of a tie, ELC Sarasota will conduct a ‘run-off’ vote for that particular seat and amend the Election Process Timeline as needed. Any changes to this process will be noted on the main provider page of the Coalition web site at http://www.elchc.org/providers.
Please direct all questions to Kiyana Scott at kscott@elcsarasota.org.
