The Hawaii State Teachers Association elects state officers every three years and our next state office elections will be held next spring.
The following open statewide offices have three year terms: President, Vice President, Secretary-Treasurer, NEA Director, and NEA Alternate Director.
Fifteen NEA RA state delegates will also be elected, as well as chapter-level leadership positions.
Click here for a breakdown of open positions and election timelines. Please note, this information is available on HSTA's members-only section of our website. You must be an active HSTA member and logged in with your registered account to view this.
The eligibility requirements for state officers include being an HSTA member for three years preceding the election, and two years preceding the election for NEA Director and NEA Alternate Director.
“We encourage all members to actively participate in our union elections,” said State Elections Chair Kari Handley.
Given the current situation with social distancing, there have been some changes to the nomination criteria for the state election. The HSTA Board of Directors recently passed an emergency bylaw amendment to waive the requirement of candidates for state office to collect signatures of two percent of the membership as part of the nomination process for the upcoming 2021 election.
According to the rationale of the proposal approved by the HSTA board Wednesday, “Hawaii’s governor and mayors have issued emergency proclamations, orders and rules which compel social distancing for the health, safety, and welfare of the people of Hawaii. These health and safety proclamations, orders and rules severely impact the ability of candidate to comply with current HSTA bylaw provisions relating to the collection of signatures for nomination of a candidate to a state office.
“Furthermore, adherence to current HSTA bylaw provisions relating to collection of signatures poses a health hazard which may jeopardize the safety of HSTA members. Given the current situation, the Elections Committee believes that bylaw provision Article XI, section 2 a. relating to nomination of candidate for state office should be waived for the 2020-2021 election as it is unbiased, fair, reasonable, and in the best interest of the safety and health of all Members in these unprecedented times,” the rationale said.
See the 2021 state election timeline for more details about the process to be nominated and to run.
If you are considering running for a state leadership position, please contact the HSTA governance office at (808) 833-2711 or submit your inquiry online here.
For more information on running for a chapter leadership position, please contact your chapter Elections Committee chair.