How to run a board election

To run a board election, first you need nominees. Then, the nominees will be voted on. Any nominee with at least one vote and no blocks will be accepted to the board.|} Make a wiki page This will be useful for remembering what is going on with the elections and who the board eventually is! Consult https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Board#Board_Elections for examples, and link to a new page for your year, then fill that page with some information! Getting nominees Time to election: t - 30 days Goals: Acquire at least 10 nominees for the Board with good diversity. Give Noisebridgers appropriate heads-up that the election is coming. Theory: Nominees for the Noisebridge board should be sourced from as many diverse parts of the community as possible. Beware the "all male panel". Go ask the Sewing Guild, the Music Guild, the Gaming Guild, and so on. Don't be satisfied with a short list of people who are well-known on Discord. Nominees may self-nominate. Note on legal liability: Board members are legally responsible for Noisebridge as a California nonprofit corporation. This is the point of having a board — it is the legal API to the world. Make sure nominees understand this before they accept. It is not a big deal in practice, but it is real. Actions: Announce in ALL of the following locations that the board election will be occurring, and set a closing date before you announce: The noisebridge-announce mailing list Noisebridge Discord, #hackitorium and #weekly-meeting discuss.noisebridge.info #the-board on Slack Confirming nominees Time to election: t - 14 days Goals: Verify that nominees actually want to be on the board. Remind Noisebridgers that the election is coming. Give people a way to vote. Actively seek out Members who may not be paying attention. Theory: Make sure people who were nominated really are interested in being part of the board by contacting them directly, verifying their preferred name and pronoun, asking them what their Platform shall be (optional, but entertaining), and getting their explicit confirmation that they accept the nomination. A nominee who does not confirm acceptance should not appear on the ballot. This avoids the situation where someone discovers they have been on the board for months without knowing it. Actions: Contact every nominee individually and get a yes or no. Send the confirmed nominee list and voting form out to as many platforms as are relevant to Noisebridge's functioning Membership. Make sure that the voting method contains a way to veto/block. Example form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfKW6OCHCw5LOgg0c_1chajVRbsrYLCN0okM3BGEuhcNTOKag/viewform?usp=sf_link Example email: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PfpMT20hb_K3oxm13lHSTektyiAQUTmiG82tTDlrmHY/edit?usp=sharing Closing the Polls Time to election: t - 8 hours. Goals: Warn Members that voting is about to end. Theory: Get a reminder out so that the last-minute types have no excuse for not participating. Actions: Resend the form via all useful vectors, letting people know the polls are about to close. Electing the Board Time to election: t + 1 day. Goals: Provide a 24-hour buffer for receiving "reasonably" late votes due to electronic latency or whatever. Close the polls. Verify and count the votes. Theory: Core Members are the voting members of Noisebridge and are eligible to vote in board elections. The voting form should ask for the voter's name. Voters self-attest that they are Core Members in good standing — you do not need to produce a list in advance or pre-screen anyone. Review the names after the polls close and flag anything that seems wrong. In practice this is rarely an issue. Any nominee with at least one vote and no blocks will be accepted to the board. We historically have 5 members on the board. The elected board members are the nominees with the most votes and no blocks. Blocks are anonymous and need no public explanation. Have two people count the votes independently before announcing results. Actions: Put anyone on the board who received at least 1 vote and no blocks. Once the votes have been counted, announce the new board on the mailing list, Discord, and update the Board page. Include the vote totals and number of ballots cast. Contact each newly elected board member directly to confirm they received the results and know they are on the board.