To allow everyone in the BJUS community a fair opportunity to participate in an unbiased and democratic process to be the BJUS president and/or member of the executive team, following rules have been established, which is quite similar to the HOA selection process except it’s only for president position only and elected president will have liberty to make his/her own team.
Note: By participating in the voting process, everyone implicitly agrees to the rule and regulations mentioned here, which can be updated without notifying anyone for any reason.
Important: BJUS is a NOT for Profit organization, registered in state of IL and cannot be used for any for profit events. BJUS or BJUS platforms (to name a few but not limited to BJUS events, BJUS Website, BJUS Facebook page, BJUS WhatsApp group etc.) cannot be used for monetary or non-monetary, direct or indirect personal gain in any case. If such conflict of interest is found, BJUS Presidency will be taken away immediately. It is very important that BJUS president, team and their families have NO conflict of interest with BJUS and BJUS platforms.
Rules & Regulations
Following rules and regulations have been established:
- BJUS Election Panel Formation
- Election process will be handled by the BJUS Election Panel (BEP).
- The BJUS Election Panel, called as BEP here onwards, will be formed by the current BJUS President, one woman representation and will have 3(three) members only.
- BEP members will NOT to vote in the election except when there is a tie.
- BEP will publish any and all election information including dates to the BJUS website.
- BEP can update or modify any or all rules mentioned here before the voting process begins.
- BEP’s key responsibility is to identify/validate voters as per the rules and regulations set.
- Candidate Nomination
- Candidate must belong from Bihar or Jharkhand or spouse
- Any BJUS member can nominate any BJUS member for President position, provided he/she accepts the nomination
- Self nomination for BJUS member is allowed
- Nominated candidates have to adhere to BJUS election policies defined.
- Nominated candidates need to fill the nomination form and submit to BEP team.
- Nomination Form: <TBD>
- This is a google form and will collect your information, please enter the details best to your knowledge.
- Nomination information must be verifiable, name, email and phone number must be correct and from a BJUS member.
- Candidate Endorsement
- Nominated candidates are advised to get endorsements from past presidents who know him/her. (Take this opportunity to make connections with past presidents). More endorsements, better it is.
- Endorsement are not required but give better visibility of the candidate’s familiarity with BJUS
- Endorsements can be done using the form provided. Its recommended to form the team while nominating for clarity.
- Endorsement form: <TBD>
- Voting Process
- BEP will publish a google form for voting for endorsed candidates only – google form will collect name, email and phone number of voters.
- Vote using this form – <TBD>
- Each name, email and phone number entered by a voter must be verifiable to a BJUS member – else your voting will go waste.
- Voting link will be published only in the BJUS Official community group, open for voting until <TBD>.
- Only adult BJUS members with valid email and phone number can vote via google form published.
- BJUS Kids & BJUS Parents who are visiting, came once and not living will NOT be considered.
- Only members of the BJUS community group and those who are connected to BJUS, can vote.
- In case there is only one nomination, BEP will cancel the voting process and declare the next BJUS President.
- Announcing NEXT President (Counting Process)
- BEP will count the votes.
- In the case of tally, all BEP members will convene and discuss before choosing one candidate.
- Current BJUS president or BEP will announce the next BJUS president during the BJUS Picnic event.
- Next BJUS president will announce the new team
- Current BJUS team will handover the list of items BJUS has or acquired so far (banner, decoration etc.) to the new BJUS president.
- Updating New BJUS Team
- New BJUS team information will be published in BJUS Official community group, FaceBook page and BJUS website
- Dissolve BEP
- BEP (BJUS Election Panel) team will be dissolved with completion of voting process/president election.
- New BJUS President Accepts all the rules & regulations set by BJUS Advisory Commitee by accepting the BJUS President role.
Election Announcement: Session 2024-26
As per the BJUS By-laws, the election of members of the Executive Committee of the BJUS Association for the period 2024 – 2026 (starts after 2024 picnic and ends with 2026 picnic) will be held for “a team” that will consist of the positions listed in the table below. The voters will nominate a team of nine candidates consisting of President, Vice-President, Secretary, Joint Secretary, Treasurer, and four Executive Members. The election will be held among the nominated teams.
| Position | No. of Positions |
| President | One |
| Vice President | One |
| Secretary | One |
| Joint Secretary | One |
| Treasurer | One |
| Executive Members* | Four |
*The four Executive Committee Members may be required to fill in positions of Cultural Secretary, Fund Raiser, Public Relations, or any other duties assigned by the President/Vice President.
After the election, the elected Executive Committee, at their discretion, may expand the team by adding up to 12 additional committee members. This addition would be made by invitation only from the members of the BJUS community.
Important Dates (updated)
| Particulars: | Date | Status |
| Election Notification to all BJUS members – BJUS Holi Event | 20 April 2024 | Done |
| Last date for Nomination (including self nomination) – 4 weeks | 19 May 2024 | Closed |
| Last date for accepting nomination (submit google form here) – 2 weeks | 02 June 2024 | Closed |
| Last date for submitting endorsements,if any (submit google form here) – 4 weeks | 30 June 2024 | Closed |
| Candidate announcement & begin voting process | 07 July 2024 | Closed |
| Last date to vote for next BJUS President selection – 4 weeks | 03 Aug 2024 | Closed |
| Vote counting process & validating the votes – 7 days | 10 Aug 2024 | Closed |
| Announcement of election results – BJUS Picnic Event (New BJUS President) | 10 Aug 2024 | Done |
ELIGIBILITY:
Members of BJUS interested in contesting the election for any position in the team are eligible to participate. The Presidential or Vice-Presidential candidates must send nominations for the team members to election@bjus.net on or before the due date. For any questions or concerns, candidates may contact the Election Committee office via email at election@bjus.net or by regular mail at the address mentioned below. Also, the candidates may call members of the Election Committee if they have any questions.
| Election Committee Member | Phone Number | Email Address |
| Current BJUS President (Cannot vote until tie) | (cell) | election@bjus.net |
| Nominated by current President (Woman) | (cell) | election@bjus.net |
| Nominated by current President | (cell) | election@bjus.net |
Frequently Asked Questions
a) Can the sitting BJUS President be removed ?
Yes the sitting BJUS President can and will be removed, if the sitting BJUS President or his/her family found (supported by evidence) to be using the BJUS or BJUS platforms for his/her personal, direct or indirect gains, monetary or non-monetary – this BJUS President will be removed by the BJUS Advisory Committee.
Any fund so far collected by the sitting BJUS President has to surrendered to BJUS Advisory Committee.
b) Who are the BJUS Presidential candidates for session 2024-26 ?
Following are the candidates, listed in alphabetical order:
(i) Chandrapid Jha from Bihar, lives in Mount Prospect.
(ii) Gyan Prakash from Bihar, lives in Schaumburg
(iii) Shikha Kumari from Bihar, lives in Naperville
c) Who can vote ?
- You are eligible to vote only if you have attended one or more of BJUS events in last 10 years (Annual, Diwali, Holi or Picnic).
- Your presence at BJUS event must be verifiable by either then BJUS President or team member.
- You must use your valid email and valid phone number to uniquely identify you.
- If we cannot verify you – we will allow you to identify yourself, if we CANNOT identify you or find that you have attended one of the events in last 10 years – your vote will NOT be counted.
- If we find that you voted more than once, all your votes will be removed and NO clarification will be provided.
- Only BJUS adults are allowed to vote, only ONE vote per BJUS adult (above 18 years).
d) Do I need to fill out optional questions?
Optional questions are to help you so that you can let us know more details about you and we can validate that you are a valid BJUS member to count your vote.
Please remember that BJUS team is not getting paid and they have their own lives, work, school and family – if you cannot spend few minutes of your time to properly fill the voting form, its not fair for you to think that others will spend time for you!