In May 2011, the Executive Board of the Committee on Korean Studies (CKS) sent out via e-mail a request for nominations from members to replace two positions on the Board vacated by Michael Pettid and Donald Clark, who served from 2008–2009 to 2010–2011, respectively. The June 25th deadline for the nomination was extended to July 10th, and five candidates who received multiple nominations and expressed willingness to serve on the board were put on an e-ballot. By August 21st 120 members had participated in the election, electing Kelly Jeong (Department of Comparative Literature, UC Riverside) and Sem Vermeersch (Department of Religious Studies, Seoul National University) as new members of the Executive Board.
As of the 2011 AAS meeting in Honolulu, the generous long-term sponsorship of the Center for Korean Studies at the University of Hawai’i, which maintained the CKS Website and handled newsletters and ballots, ended, and the Executive Board decided to use e-balloting through Survey Monkey to conduct both nomination and election for the board. The membership list was culled from the AAS Membership webpage on May 1, which showed a total number of 492 people who selected “Korea” as their primary research field when they signed up for AAS membership.
It is expected that the 2012 board election will be conducted in the spring in a similar way, and this time three new members will be elected to replace Hwasook Nam, Chris Hanscom, and Joy Kim, whose three-year terms expire at the end of the Toronto AAS meeting. Your active participation in the nomination and balloting process will be greatly appreciated.
submitted by Hwasook Nam