The 2022 AFTNJ Convention will take place April 9 from 9-11 a.m. at the Hilton East Brunswick, 3 Tower Center Blvd. in East Brunswick.
Nomination Process of Executive Officers and Vice Presidents
At the Delegate Assembly meeting held Jan. 31, 2022, the body approved a recommendation put forth by the election committee to suspend the rules of the convention due to the continuing pandemic.
The following election process was approved. Paper petitions will not be used for this election. Nominations from the floor were opened at the Jan. 31 Delegate Assembly virtual meeting. Nominations were accepted for the five executive positions and the 24 vice presidents, 12 each from K-12 and higher education. All nominations were properly seconded, and those names will appear on the ballot. A sample ballot will be posted on the AFTNJ website listing all candidates by the end of the business day on March 10, 2022.
Additionally, between Feb. 1 and March 9, nominations will be accepted via email.
All nominations must be emailed to Krista Sweeney at (ksweeney@aftnj.org) and must include the name, the title of the offices seeking and the home local. Nominations must also have the name and contact information of the person who is seconding the nomination. If that email comes from anyone other than the person being nominated, the nominee will be contacted to confirm that they agree to run. This allows plenty of time to prepare ballots for the convention.
Note that our constitution stipulates that all officers of AFT New Jersey shall be members of affiliates in good standing of AFT New Jersey and AFT National and allows for an open and fair nomination process.
At this time, the 2022 convention is still scheduled to be in-person, so the elections committee will count paper ballots at the convention as we have done in the past. If the decision is made at some point that it will be virtual, we will conduct any contested elections using the same procedure we used in 2020: using paper ballots sent to the ranking delegates of locals registered for the convention and allowing two weeks for the ballots to be return. The Election Committee would schedule a virtual session for Saturday, April 23, to open the ballots and announce the results of the election.
All nominations must be received by 5 p.m. at the AFTNJ office on Wednesday, March 9, 2022. Nominations received after that date and time will not be accepted.
All delegates will receive a convention agenda and all documents supporting convention business by March 25, 2022.
If you have any questions, please contact Krista Sweeney at the AFTNJ office: 732-661-9393 or ksweeney@aftnj.org.
