How OSI will renew its Board of Directors in 2022

In the next few months, the OSI board of directors will renew four of its seats with an open election process among its full individual members and affiliates. There will be two elections in March:

• The Affiliate organizations will elect two directors
• Individual members will elect two directors

Following the experts’ recommendation last year, we’re logically separating the two elections more clearly, although we currently don’t have the capacity to run elections at separate times. We’ll consider that option again in the future.

The role of Board of Directors

The board’s responsibilities include oversight of the organization, approving the budget, supporting the executive director and staff to fulfill its mission. The OSI has evolved from a volunteer-run organization and the role of the directors has changed accordingly.

Each director is expected to be a counsel and a guide for staff rather than an active contributor. Directors should guide discussions, support the vision and mission of the organization, and advocate for the OSI. They’re also asked to support the fundraising efforts however they feel comfortable doing.

The board is governed by the bylaws. Each board member is expected to sign the Board member agreement. Depending on expertise and availability, directors can also serve on the active committees: the License, Fundraising, Standards and Financial committees.

Candidates will be asked to share their ideas on how they’ll contribute to the vision and mission, and the 2022 strategic objectives.

How the individual members election works

All OSI individual members whose full membership started no later than February 4th 2022 are eligible as candidates.

Starting on February 7th 2022, the eligible candidates who would like to run for an individual member seat will be able to submit their candidacy to the OSI filling in the form.

The staff will check eligibility against our database and will provide further instructions to the candidate.

Eligible and approved candidates will have their personal page built on the opensource.org website. OSI members can login and ask questions to the candidates using the comments on the individual pages.

The list of Individual candidates will be closed on Mar 7, 2022. We’ll share more details about the voting process at a later date.

How the Affiliate organizations election works

Candidates to represent Affiliate organizations are proposed by the Affiliates themselves and they don’t have to be Individual Members, although a person may only be nominated to run for a single seat in one of the two elections.

The list of electors for the Affiliates’ seat is made of the official representative of each affiliate organization as of February 4th, 2022.

Starting on February 4th, the representatives of each OSI Affiliate will receive detailed instructions on how to submit candidates. Only one nomination per Affiliate will be accepted.

Affiliates will submit candidates using this form. The list of Affiliate Candidates will be available in the elections page.

The list of Affiliate candidates will be closed on Mar 7, 2022. We’ll share more details about the voting process at a later date.

Next steps and timeline

The polls will open on March 11. We’ll share more details about how voting will proceed in the next few weeks. Check the timeline below for the upcoming deadlines.

Stay tuned for more information. If you’re a member of an Affiliate organization interested in running for a seat on the board, talk to your OSI representative.

If you want to run for a seat at the board of directors as an individual member, you still have time to signup.