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AAN Board Seats Up for Election

Elections for several board positions will be held on Saturday, June 18, the final day of the 28th Annual Convention of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. Voting will take place during the annual meeting that morning.

Under AAN’s staggered-election system, the positions up for election this year, and their current incumbents, are as follows:

  • President (Clif Garboden, senior managing editor, Phoenix Media Communications Group)

  • Vice President (Kenneth Neill, publisher, Memphis Flyer)

  • Classified Advertising Chair (Robby Robbins, classified manager, Independent Weekly)

  • Display Advertising Chair (Carol Flagg, advertising director, Austin Chronicle)

  • Editorial Chair (Patricia Calhoun, editor, Westword)

  • First Amendment Chair (Tim Redmond, executive editor, San Francisco Bay Guardian)

  • Organization/Bylaws Chair, (Stephen Leon, editor and publisher, Metroland)

  • At-large (Penelope Huston Baer, classified manager, Santa Barbara Independent)

The term for each of these positions is two years. In addition, a representative of the host paper for next year’s Annual Convention will be elected to a one-year term as Convention Chair.

Kenneth Neill, who was appointed VP last year when former AAN member Andy Newman resigned the position, has announced that he plans to run for President. His announcement is in keeping with a longstanding AAN tradition in which the Vice President ultimately ascends to the association’s leadership position. In order to seek the presidency, Neill must surrender the one year left in his term as Membership Committee Chair. Paula Routly, co-publisher and -editor of Seven Days in Burlington, Vt., has announced that she will run to replace Neill as Membership chair, vacating the one year remaining in her term as an at-large Board member.

Stephen Leon, the current Organization and Bylaws chair, plans to run for Vice President, and the remaining incumbents — Robby Robbins, Carol Flagg, Patricia Calhoun, Tim Redmond and Penelope Huston Baer — have announced that they plan to seek reelection to their current seats.

Under the association’s bylaws, Clif Garboden will automatically assume a Board seat as Immediate Past President.

To learn more about the responsibilities of serving on the Board, contact AAN Executive Director Richard Karpel or any of the current Board members. AAN members should notify Karpel of their intention to run for a Board seat by Friday, May 27, in order to be included in an upcoming article on the AAN Web site profiling Board candidates. Those who do not announce their candidacy in advance may still run for a position on the Board if they are nominated from the floor during the annual meeting.

In addition, members who are interested in serving on one of AAN’s standing committees can notify Karpel or the present chairperson of the committee. Members may also volunteer for committee positions during the convention. Sign-up sheets for each committee will be posted in the registration area throughout the convention.