MCR Election Templates in surveys will help you manage your election process!
MCR Surveys allows your chapter to easily conduct elections without external programs which are costly and time consuming or paper ballots which are imprecise and messy.
Typically, elections require 3-4 surveys:
Electing your nominating committee
Having your members fill out their interests
Electing the members to be your future leaders. (single slate or double slate)
A couple of items to note:
Please pay attention to who can view the replies.
Once a survey has been answered by one person, you can no longer edit it. Use the draft feature to make sure it looks correct before sending it out.
If you are doing a double slate, don’t forget it’s easy to duplicate a survey.
When in Manage Surveys, if you click on the survey itself, it will bring you into a preview of the actual survey...nothing will be recorded in the results no matter how many times you try
Surveys are answerable on the Mobile app or website
If for some reason you don’t have a template in your drafts, please chat in with us and we can copy it over.
We have created 3 survey draft templates for you!!
1. Nominating Committee:
The role of the nominating committee is to oversee the election process. Typically each academic class elects its representative to serve on the committee, plus 1 or a few members at large. Voting for the Nominating Committee typically is done during a chapter meeting and can be prepared by the president or a chapter advisor.
We suggest taking nominations at the beginning of the chapter meeting, having someone who can navigate and edit the survey during vp announcements, and vote at the end of chapter.
A Nominating Committee Elections Template DRAFT survey has been created and shared to your chapter, and can be accessed by going to Communicate > Surveys > Manage Surveys > Drafts
If you only allow chapter members who are at the meeting to vote, remember to create a group in MCR with the members at chapter so you can use that group when you send out the survey.
Click on the pencil icon to edit this template to change the name and input the members who are running.
You will notice there is skip logic attached to the academic class question
You should preview the survey before sending to Members to make sure everything looks correct.
To preview click the preview (eye) icon in the upper right corner
Once you hit Update, make sure to include yourself (the president) and any advisors in the Results viewed by: line.
Send out the survey.
Have members vote (fill out the survey) during chapter.
The results can be viewed by clicking the graph icon to the right of the survey. You can verbally share the results live to the members during the meeting.
Archive your survey when done.
2. Interest grid:
The Interest grid is typically prepared by the nominating committee and sent to the chapter to help determine which Members are interested and eligible for each position.
Note: Either an administrator (Chapter President/Advisor) can do this process on behalf of the nominating committee or the nominating committee chair can be given Exec Board Access and follow this process. Click here for information on how to give access.
A Interest Grid Template DRAFT has been created and shared to your chapter, and can be accessed by going to Communicate > Surveys > Manage Surveys > Drafts
if you have used MCR in the past for an interest grid, go to the Archived section, search for “Interest” and duplicate the survey. You can then skip most of the setup, just revise and preview before sending.
Click on the pencil icon to edit the Interest Grid Template for your chapter
The Survey will open and you will be able to edit the survey so that it matches your chapters positions and process.
if you have a list of positions, you can copy and paste them into the field type and each position will be pasted on a different line.
This survey is designed so that every chapter Member is expected to fill it out, even if they are not interested.
This allows the nominating committee to be sure they know each Members intention in running for a position
You can add any additional questions, for instance if there is a specific day they must be available for meetings etc.
You will notice on question 3 there is skip logic applied that depending on which choice the Member selects directs them to the appropriate next question/submit the survey
You should preview the survey before sending to Members to make sure everything looks correct, to preview click the preview (eye) icon in the upper right corner
Preview will show you how the survey will appear to Members taking the survey
Once you have confirmed that all of the questions you need are updated appropriately, you will click Update
Make sure that the survey is being sent to Active Lifetime Members and Active New Members
Make sure to include the entire nominating committee (including advisors!) in the Results Viewed By section
You can type individual names or if you have created a nominating committee group send it to the group. It’s nice to create a group in case you need to add someone to the group later on. it will automatically add that person to the members who can view the replies.
Once you have added who can view the survey you can either send the survey by clicking Send or you can Save as Draft and wait to send the survey once the Nominating Committee has explained the process at a chapter meeting.
You will follow the same steps to open the survey from drafts and send to the chapter once you are ready to send
Once the time frame you have given your chapter has passed, we suggest you Archive your survey so no other surveys can be submitted.
You will be able to see who has replied and who is outstanding.
Once archived, you can pull a report (graph icon) and determine who is running for what positions. The best way to pull this is to export the survey to an excel spreadsheet. Use the excel icon.
3. Elections:
This is the time your Members have the ability to vote who should be the future leaders of your chapter. Once everyone has been verified, the members running for each position are input into the Election Template DRAFT.
Please utilize the same steps above to edit and send to chapter members
Results will be shared out to the chapter in the form of a slate determined by your bylaws. This can be shared out to the chapter under Documents or Resources via MCR.
How to view the results:
Once voting is done, you should archive the survey to stop from collecting answers
Once archived, you can click on the graph icon to get a report
Please note there are many options in here to view your results and exporting to excel will allow you to manipulate the information even more.
Remember, we are always available to assist you as you are navigating this new tool!
If you have questions or need assistance setting up your surveys or any other survey, please chat in with us and we can set up a time to help you!
Happy Voting!