Note: we had a technical issue that led to problems with the voting that has now been addressed.

The NAISA Council has authorized me to conduct the 2011 election of new association officers, and voting is now open. Voting will close on April 25th at noon Central Standard Time (North America).

Ballots, instructions, and statements and biographies of candidates for President-elect, Council members, and Nominations Committee members are accessible through the link “Election 2011” link in the Primary Links section on left-hand side of the NAISA home page.

This year we also inaugurate a process of member participation in voting for NAISA prizes. This year our members will vote on two prizes to be awarded during our annual meeting in Sacramento: (1) Most Thought-Provoking Article in Native American and Indigenous Studies published in the calendar year 2009; and (2) Top Ten Most Influential Books in Native American and Indigenous Studies of the First Decade of the 21st Century. Members nominated the candidates for these prizes in advance of our meeting in Tucson last year. These links are also on Primary Links section on the left-hand side of the NAISA home page.

PLEASE NOTE: To participate in the election and prize voting, you must be a current member and you must have activated your password-protected http://www.naisa.org/ user account. If you need to renew your membership or create a new membership, click on Membership under the primary links menu on the left upper part of the page and follow instructions there. If you need to activate your user account, follow instructions in a blog entry (“Using your http://www.naisa.org/ user account”) on the front page of http://www.naisa.org/

If you are a current member and you have a user account, once you log in to http://www.naisa.org/ you should see a block of text titled “Election Eligibility” at the top right side of the website that will say that you are “eligible.” If for some reason you are listed as ineligible, please contact us at naisameeting2011@gmail.com

Thanks to this year’s candidates for their willingness to stand for election, and thanks also to Chadwick Allen and the NAISA Nominations Committee for their work in developing the ballot.