BAP Nominations Top Tips
Now you have experienced the magic, wonder and downright strangeness of your first BAP conference and been inducted as a new Fellow, you might well be thinking about nominating new delegates yourself. There is more information on the BAP website about how to nominate, but here are some things to think about when considering nominations.
- You don’t have to know your potential nominee well – sometimes it’s better if it is someone who you’ve only just met through work, networking etc.
- We look for people who are established leaders in their fields, but also people who will grow and develop through their engagement with BAP, so don’t feel you have to mine your top contacts. The key point is whether they will benefit from being part of BAP and whether they are able to contribute to BAP.
- The best delegate groups have people from a wide range of backgrounds. Unusual or distinctive doesn’t in and of itself guarantee selection, but BAP benefits from diversity of all kinds – personal, professional and intellectual. If you can, think about nominating someone who is your opposite, someone who isn’t from the same professional background.
- We want to select future active Fellows as well as a delegate class for this year’s conference. So it’s worth thinking about whether your potential nominee has the time, interest or inclination to be involved in a membership organisation on an ongoing basis.
- Nominating is easy! We don’t ask you to do more than provide their details and a brief summary of who they are and why you think they’d be great for BAP. We do the rest.
- If you do nominate, do let your nominee know you have done so, so they are not surprised by our invitation to selection. It is a better experience for everyone if the nominee has some prior knowledge of BAP before they come to selection. While summing up BAP to the uninitiated is hard, a bit of background of what it is and is not, or how you found your time at conference, is always helpful for nominees. Even better is to bring them to the US Embassy reception (date tbc but usually around April) so they can meet BAP Fellows and other nominees.
- Don’t prime them for selection meetings (we can tell who has been coached!) but do make sure they know they need to contribute actively to the discussion – we can’t select people who haven’t demonstrated that they have the intellectual curiosity and versatility we look for.
- We always say this to nominees as well as nominators, but as you were selected you may not remember… we end up with groups of highly impressive people at selections and some really capable and interesting people do not get through. There are no guarantees, because we consider the group as a whole as well as individual talent – however fantastic your nominee is, there is a risk they may not be selected. Most people are fine and understand that it is a competitive process, but someone not being selected can be hard for the nominator as well as the nominee, so please bear that in mind.
If you have any questions about nominating or the selections process, please contact Jo Saucek.