For the Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado (MASC) we hold election every two years. Here are the relevant bylaws:

VI.3. To stand for election, a person must be a Member in good standing, over the age of 18, who has attended at least two Society meetings in the previous twelve calendar months.
VI.4. Nominations for officers shall take place the first two weeks of August in odd-numbered years. The Webmaster and Membership Chair will assist in determining eligibility of the nominated persons to run for office. Elections shall take place on the Society website during the third week of August. The Webmaster is responsible for administering the election process. The newly elected officers shall assume office on September 1st of each odd-numbered year.

A "member in good standing" is currently defined as a member who has paid dues for the current year. It is up to the board to define the membership fees amounts (if any) and other requirements. We are working at increasing other forms of income through sponsorship and "raffles" (higher attendance will be key here) so that we don't have the flat membership fees.

While we use our site for nominations thread, sending email ballots to members and posting the results, the ballots themselves are sent via email and tallied in a spreadsheet. A little more secretive and a better audit trail than just a poll on the website. Maybe we will find a more sophisticated online method in the future.

Nominations Thread: http://www.marinecolorado.org/forum...php?t=1926
Complete Bylaws: http://www.marinecolorado.org/forums/faq.php?faq=masc_faq_list#faq_masc_bylaws

PS- if you want to reach me, use this account (my individual one) if you want to reach the entire board of MASC, use the club account above.

 Hi Linda,

BAR (Bay Area Reefers) has a simple way of doing it. 

From:

Section D
The President must appoint a nominating committee at the September board meeting each year, comprised of not less than three (3) members (general members and/or BOD members) including a Chairperson of that committee. This committee shall meet and select candidates for the BOD to be presented to the membership at the October general membership meeting.
At the October general membership meeting, the chairperson shall present the candidates to the membership. The President shall call for nominations from the floor. If there are no opposing candidates from those presented by the nominating committee, a vote shall take place. If there is more than one candidate for any of the offices, voting shall take place the following month. Nominations from the floor, if any, shall be made by persons who are members in good standing.
Section E
Voting may be online, verbal, by hand, or by secret ballot, but if two or more candidates are nominated for any position, then the vote shall be made by secret ballot (which may also be online). A candidate who receives a majority of the votes shall be declared elected by the President. In the event that no one candidate receives a majority of the vote, the President shall call for another vote (run-off) until one person is elected with a majority of the votes.

I think the most important part is to make it easy since most, if not all of the people involved in hobby clubs are volunteers. Cutting down the make work makes people want to work more. :D

CTARS holds an annual election. The BoD nominates their candidates in early Oct. We open up the nomination to the club during the month of Oct to allow members to nominate others. Candidates must be a member in good standing and understand the job. Then we hold the election on-line (which means the member has to log on to the CTARS website) in the 1st 2 weeks in November. We do it on-line to give every member a chance to have their voice heard. The winner is announced at the November meeting and they officially take office Jan 1.

I won't get into specifics, but there are two primary methodologies for voting systems now. There is the traditional First Past the Post (what we use in public elections) and a secondary type called Weighted Voting. should you want more information please PM me and I was can arrange to meet up on the mIRC channel to discuss it.