Seeking more accuracy and less stereotyping, the Humane Party has updated its approach to titles for individual organizational roles. Title changes, made effective on April 12, 2017, include:
- The position of “Chief Executive Officer” or “CEO” is now titled Staff Coordinator
- The position of “Editor-in-Chief” or “EIC” is now titled Editing Coordinator
- “Chief Operating Officer” or “COO” is now Operations Coordinator
- “Chief Technology Officer” or “CTO” is now Technology Coordinator
- “Chairperson” of the Board is now Board Coordinator
State chapters of the Humane Party are encouraged to follow suit.
Many popularly used titles, such as “CEO”, have become associated with assumptions that do not accurately reflect Humane Party values and that are contrary to the Humane Party’s organizational philosophy. Replacing such titles with neutral and more descriptively accurate titles enables the Humane Party to continue to grow without such unnecessary hindrance.
These changes comport with the Humane Party’s long-standing policy of not using personal title prefixes and suffixes, such as “Dr.” and “Esq.”, in any HP materials. Pursuant to this policy, the HP volunteer application does not even include and never has included a field for submission of such information.
Humane Party concerns with respect to personal titles may be considered a modern extension of the class- and hierarchy-related concerns that motivated the framers of the U.S. Constitution to eliminate titles of nobility. See U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 (“No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States….”).
Individual campaign organizations are encouraged but not required to follow this policy with respect to individual title suffixes and prefixes in their own materials.
The Humane Herald 