The African Astronomical Society (AfAS) invites nominations for its Executive Committee (EXCO) to serve from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2028.
The nominations are for 5 (Five) ordinary members, inclusive of a Young Astronomer as well as for the President/Vice President of AfAS, who will be elected at the General Assembly scheduled for March 2025 in South Africa. The election of the President and Vice President of AfAS will run parallel to that of ordinary Executive Committee members, the person with the highest votes will be elected as President and the one with the second highest number of votes, being the Vice President. Should the voting process realise any ties for the General Committee members or President/Vice President, further voting by members will be called for until there is/are clear choices arising from the voting process.
An individual may, therefore, nominate more than 1 (one) person for the general Committee members and only 1 person for the President/Vice President. The person with the highest number of votes for the President/Vice President election, will be elected as the President and the one with second highest number of votes, the Vice President; nominations must satisfy the following critical criteria:
- A nominee must be a duly accredited, full member of AfAS, however, non-members can be nominated provided an application for full membership is completed at the time of the nomination
- Nominees must be based in African institutions, professionally active and, who have distinguished themselves in the field of astronomy and related disciplines and possess qualifications, experience and/or skills in relation to advancing the work of AfAS in the field of astronomy and related disciplines.
- The nominees for the President/Vice President will be experienced and professionally active astronomers with at least 10 years post-qualifying experience, inclusive of holding a senior position, or senior managers involved in astronomy or related disciplines.
- The EXCO will be composed of seven (7) members as contemplated above, as well as the ex-officio members as identified in the AfAS Constitution. The seven (7) members are appointed in their personal capacities and must:
- broadly be representative of the African demographics in terms of regional representation, age, experience and gender,
- broadly be representative of the higher education sector and /or astronomy facilities/agencies across Africa,
- have expertise in any of the astronomy modalities and/or related disciplines,
- have been involved in AfAS activities in the past
- include a “Young Astronomer” who has had 3 years of post-qualifying experience
All nominations must be made on the nomination form, which is available on this link:
and all sections must be completed. For non-AfAS members who are nominated, the membership application form can be completed online on the AfAS website by the nominee. Note that all nominees must confirm their acceptance on the nomination form and provide a summarised CV of no more than 4 pages and which includes educational achievements and career highlights to date. In addition, the nominee’s Head of the Institution or Departmental Head where the nominee is based, must endorse the nomination as well. As indicated on the nomination form, nominators to provide a brief motivation for the nomination. Failure to complete all sections of the form will render the nomination invalid.
NOTE THAT SELF NOMINATION IS ALLOWED
The nomination form must be completed and submitted no later than 31 January 2025. Voting by AfAS members will take place at the General Assembly in March 2025.