We missed having elections for the Community Council since the first one (due to COVID, then lack of interest, then inability to find volunteers to run the election) and had to regroup a bit to figure out how to run them now that those impediments have been (hopefully) overcome.
We now have enough interest to believe that this attempt will be successful. More people are now expressing interest than positions to be filled.
Originally, we had intended that only half of the positions on the Community Council would be elected each year. You can see details about the process here https://civicrm.org/community-council and in the report of the Establishment Committee.
Due to the extreme delay, we will elect 11 members this round, the 5 receiving the most votes for two years and the next 6 for one year. In the future elections will be held each year for two-year terms of 6 seats in odd-numbered years and 5 in even-numbered years (plus replacements for any members who have dropped off during the year).
History of the Community Council
The Community Council was established by election in 2020, with the following mandate (excerpted from https://lab.civicrm.org/community/ec#proposal-of-the-establishment-committee-as-mandated-by-the-community)
"The Community Council will work with the Working Group leaders and Core Team to provide vision, strategy, and direction, which may include structural changes. The Community Council will act as a channel for the CiviCRM community to address concerns and conflicts, and provide decisions regarding the direction of CiviCRM as a project.
The Community Council is not expected to provide day-to-day management of individuals and their work. The Working Group leaders and Core Team will continue to work with autonomy in support of the goals and objectives defined by the Community Council.
The Community Council has within its mandate decisions such as the following, any or all of which it could delegate to Working Groups if it wishes:
- Contribution to the development of an annual project budget
- Stewardship of the project roadmap, defining near-term and long-term priorities and technical strategies
- Establishment of Working Groups, and process of appointment for Working Group leaders
- Definition of the parameters for Partnership, Membership, and similar programs
- Exploration and development of revenue-generation models and programs
- Development of a conflict resolution process
Note that since its establishment, the council has been reworking this definition, focussing more on being a body that stewards the community than on governance. Further details will be published soon at https://civicrm.org/community-council
Reminder About Nominations and Voting List
Any person with an active account on CiviCRM.org (logged in within the past two years) may nominate themselves to the Council. Each candidate will have two other members vouch for them (seconders) and will prepare a statement (on the form) that will include their geographic location, involvement in the CiviCRM project, and what they hope to contribute to the council.
Nominations are using CiviCRM with Drupal Webforms on https://civicrmcommunity.ourpowerbase.net/.
Any person with an active account on CiviCRM.org (logged in within the last two years) will be on the voter's list. We will export a list of all active accounts on May 30, 2022 that will constitute the voter's list.
Log in now if in doubt!
The Elections Committee will monitor the Community channel in https://chat.civicrm.org for questions and discussion.
Timeline
| Date | Item |
| May 3 | Announcement of process, including need to log in to civicrm.org and/or create account by May 24 |
| May 24 | declaration of candidacy with seconders due |
| May 29 | candidate statements due |
| May 30 | user list exported from civicrm.org and imported into Helios Vote |
| May 31 | announcement of candidates |
| June 1 | voting start |
| June 22 | voting closed |
| June 25-27 | confirm with winners |
| June 29 | announce winners |
Ensure you are eligible to vote:
- Simply log in to your account at https://civicrm.org/user today (or by 3 July latest) to check your details are up-to-date and you’ll then be eligible to vote.
- If you don’t yet have an account you can register one today. Note that it’s possible you have a mattermost (chat.civicrm.org) or civicrm.stackexchange.com account but not a civicrm.org one: if you’re involved with the community in either of those places you’re encouraged to register an account at https://civicrm.org/user/register
Nominate yourself for election to the council
https://civicrmcommunity.ourpowerbase.net/nomination-civicrm-community-council
Thanks to ourpowerbase.net for hosting the nomination form.
Know someone else who you’d like to see on the council?
Please encourage them to nominate themself. The council will be most effective with a good balance of people on it.
About the voting system
We will be using an external platform, HeliosVoting.org, to run the actual voting.
Filed under Community
