Revised June 6, 2005

National Child Passenger Safety Board Members representing Child Passenger Safety Advocates; Diversity; National Nursing Organizations; National Law Enforcement Organizations; State Injury Prevention/Public Health organizations; CPS Advocates and At-Large members are selected through an open application process. The general process for selecting new members is as follows:

Invitation to Apply
The Membership Committee, Chaired by the Board Vice-Chair, posts an announcement in late spring or early summer that lists positions that will be open for the following calendar year. At that time, the Board issues an "Invitation to Apply for Board Membership" for the open positions.

An application form with complete instructions for applying is posted for download from cpsboard.org at this time. Applicants are encouraged to apply for more than one position, if appropriate, but separate application forms are required for each position applied for and applicants can only be selected to represent one category.

Persons applying to represent an organization are required to have the organization's Executive Director or CEO sign the Application Form.


New Member Application Review Process

Independent Review
The members of the Membership Committee review all applications independently and select the top candidate(s) for each category using the following criteria to review and rank the applications:

• Application is complete.
• Application is submitted on time.
• Applicant meets criteria for the category he/she wishes to represent.
• Application is ranked against other applications in the same category (not across category comparison).
  • Applicant receives special credit if organization does outreach to diverse communities regardless of category of the application.
  • Applicant receives special credit if a new applicant versus an existing Board member who is re-applying.

If the Board does not receive qualified applications for certain categories, then the Board may re-open the application process for the particular category or categories.

Committee Review
The Membership Committee meets or uses te;econferencing to review applications and come to consensus on the top candidates. The Committee then reviewes the overall composition of the proposed "new" Board (i.e., the existing members that would continue to serve into the next calendar year along with the proposed new Board Members) to ensure diversity (i.e., ethnic, professional, gender and geographic) among the Board Members.

Once the Committee determines that the diversity criteria will be met with the recommendations for new members along with continuing members, the Membership Committee submits the slate of proposed new members to the full Board.

Board Approval
The Membership Committee chair submits the proposed New Member Slate to the entire Board for review and approval.

Notification to Applicants
All applicants are sent either a letter from the Board stating their confirmation or a letter of thanks, regrets, and encouragement to apply in the next membership cycle.