1. Only members of Convocation are eligible to nominate and vote. Convocation comprises Congregation (about 3,700 serving professors, lecturers and so forth) and all living Oxford graduates (thought to number about 100,000). Convocation used to include only graduates who had acquired their M.A., but by a change in the statutes in October 2002, this restriction was dropped, so all graduates are now included.
2. Those eligible can nominate more than one candidate and can nominate one candidate and then vote for another. To go through to the voting round, a candidate needs 50 nominations.
3. Nomination forms in Pdf or MS Word formats are downloadable either direct from here (Pdf, MS Word) or from the official Oxford University website www.admin.ox.ac.uk/councilsec/covoc.shtml, which also has links to the relevant regulations. Completed forms (original hard copies only, 1-10 signatories per form) have to reach the University Registry by Tuesday 25th February, so if you wish to nominate me (e.g. Andrew Malcolm), please return your completed form(s), preferably, to me by the weekend of 22nd/23rd February. Alternatively, if you prefer to send your form direct to the Registry, please take and send me a photocopy of it. Please e-mail me first akme@btinternet.com giving me your telephone number(s), and I will telephone you back with my address etc.
4. Note that 'year matriculated' is the year you started your course. If in doubt, I suggest including your course start and finish years, underlining the start year, e.g. 1999-2002. If it is easy for you to produce, a photocopy of your degree certificate will help authentication.
5. When the nominations have been counted on February 25th and the eligible candidates decided, the 'race' begins in earnest, with voting taking place in person in Oxford on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th March 2003. The voting venue was first announced by the university as being Convocation House, 9.15am-5.0pm, but this has just been changed (10/2) to the Divinity School in the Bodleian Library - and very nice too. The voting times are no longer mentioned, but presumably remain 9.15am-5.0pm. Punters are advised to keep checking www.admin.ox.ac.uk/councilsec/covoc.shtml for any further changes.