One quarter of fellowship ultimately cast ballots

This year, for the first time, the election of members to the AAOS Nominating Committee and voting on proposed AAOS resolutions and bylaws amendments were conducted on the same ballot—and primarily on the Internet.

On May 6, 2011, the end of the initial balloting process, 4,122 fellows had cast ballots, 17.5 percent of those eligible to vote. Because a vote by at least 20 percent of eligible voters is required for resolutions and bylaw amendments, the AAOS Board of Directors extended the balloting for an additional 30 days. On June 6, 2011, the end of the extended balloting period, 6,360 fellows had cast ballots, 27 percent of those eligible.

Fellows were asked to vote on retaining (and modifying) three Academy and five Association resolutions under the 5-year review process. In addition, three groups of bylaws amendments were put to the fellowship.

Background
At the time of the 2011 balloting, the AAOS had 23,650 active, emeritus, and inactive fellows eligible to vote. Ballots and information on voting were delivered primarily via the Internet. If Fellows had not provided the AAOS with an e-mail address but had provided a fax number, AAOS sent a ballot and balloting information by fax. For the relatively small remaining group of orthopaedic surgeons who had not provided AAOS with either e-mail addresses or fax numbers, AAOS sent a written ballot and background information via the U.S. Postal Service.

Votes were tallied by the AAOS research department staff. All valid online and fax submissions received prior to midnight on June 6 were included. Mailed ballots that were postmarked by June 6 and received by noon on June 8 were also included.

Response statistics
The “accept all recommendations” option was selected by 70 percent of respondents, while the remainder voted on items individually. No measure received less than a 93 percent approval rate (Table 1).

The recommendation of the AAOS Resolutions Committee was adopted for each of the eight resolutions on the ballot. In addition, three bylaws amendments—one governing certain aspects of the AAOS professional compliance program, the second governing the AAOS balloting process, and the third creating a new membership category of Associate Resident Member–International—were also adopted.

Richard N. Peterson, JD, is the AAOS general counsel. He can be reached at peterson@aaos.org