Official invitation to the TASSA 2006 General Assembly and Special Elections

We have come to another important milestone in the evolution of our rapidly growing organization: TASSA 2006 Elections. This announcement is the official notice for the start of the TASSA 2006 General Assembly to be conducted online between November 20 - December 10, 2006.

The Agenda for this business meeting of TASSA

1. Approval of the 2005 Activity Report 2. Approval of the 2005 Financial Report 3. 2006 Special Elections

TASSA's Bylaws and Elections Committee hereby officially invites nominations for the following positions that will be filled through the oncoming Special Elections (all terms start on January 1st and end in December 31st of the noted calendar years):

* President-Elect, who will serve in that capacity for one year in 2007 and as President for the subsequent two years in 2008 and 2009 * Treasurer, two-year term: 2007-2008 * Membership Committee Chair, two-year term: 2007-2008 * Three Auditors, two-year term: 2007-2008 * One Student Representative, to be elected only by the student members, two-year term: 2007-2008 * One Board member for each of the following: o Applied Sciences Technical Group, two-year term: 2007-2008 o Health and Biomedical Sciences Technical Group, two-year term: 2007-2008 o Social Sciences and Arts and Humanities Technical Group, two-year term: 2007-2008 o Natural Sciences Technical Group, two-year term: 2007-2008

The nomination process

(For details see below or special TASSA election forum pages):

* Any member may nominate any other member after obtaining his/her approval. * Self-nominations are allowed. * Only members who have been registered TASSA members since October 20, 2005 and who have paid their 2005 and 2006 dues are eligible for nomination. Please confirm this if you are nominating someone else. * The candidate's bio, not exceeding 500 words, should accompany the nomination. * In addition, the candidates are required to submit a personal statement, not exceeding 500 words, explaining their vision, priorities, and overall strategic thrust for TASSA. * Nominations and supporting documents should be sent to election@tassausa.org by the nomination deadline of November 10, 2006.

Election timeline

* October 10, 2006: Call for nominations and General Assembly * November 10, 2006: Deadline for nominations * November 15, 2006: Nominees are announced. * November 20, 2006: Online Assembly and voting start * December 10, 2006: Online Assembly and voting end * December 15, 2006: Election results are made public

We are looking forward to your participation in this democratic process. If you believe in TASSA's mission and you think you can contribute to the achievement of TASSA's objectives, please step forward and become a candidate. Please note: Only if your membership dues are paid as of October 20, 2006, you are eligible to participate and vote in this general assembly.

Sincerely,

Bylaws and Election Committee

Article 22 (from TASSA bylaws): Eligibility to Run for Office and to Vote Regular and overseas members have voting rights. Only regular members may run for an elected or appointed office. Overseas members may not serve in elected positions, or as chairs of committees, except those committees that operate in their country of residence. Student members may only run and be voted for the student member seats on the board of directors. To avail themselves of these rights, members must have paid their membership dues for the current year at least 30 days prior to a vote. A nominee for any elected position must have been a member of TASSA for at least 12 months as of the start of the voting for election.