Election Process + Timeline
It’s an exciting time of the year as we prepare for our second General Assembly and first IRF board member elections! As this is the first time running through the election process the date ranges are estimates and will be adjusted as necessary. The IRF is working to complete everything by the end of the year, but there is the possibility items get pushed back if things take longer than anticipated.
Tentative Timeline
Now - Oct 17 - Update Membership Status
Oct 19 - 28 - Vote on bylaws
November 15 - Eligible countries share board member nominations within their continental region
November 30 - Each continental regions selects one nominee
Week of Dec 12th - General Assembly confirms nominations
Election Overview
As a reminder, here is a high-level overview of how the process works:
Countries that meet the criteria can nominate a board candidate. The IRF board nominates one additional candidate.
Each continental region votes to select one candidate from their region
The general assembly votes to confirm all nominations
Currently, the criteria for nominating a board member are that the continental region must have at least two full-member NGBs and that the nominee must come from a full-member NGB. Within the continental region, any NGBs with provisional status can vote.
NGB Membership Census
In order to run the election process, we want to make sure that all NGBs have the right membership status. That is why we started by sending out a census.
We are collecting information from ALL NGBs to confirm or update membership status (deadline extended to Monday, October 17th).
Vote on Nomination Criteria within Bylaws
As the board discussed this process, we realized that the full-membership requirement could be overly restrictive and prevent a diversity of representation. Therefore, we want the members to vote on this topic.
The IRF Board recommends that the threshold for having board representation be lowered to include voting members (ie Full or Provisional membership). So if your continental region has two voting members then you are able to nominate a board member and that board member can come from any Full or Provisional member country within that region.
The vote on this topic is planned to be sent out on Wednesday, October 19th following the completion of the NGB census.
Nominations and Confirmations
Each eligible country is allowed to nominate one representative for the IRF board. Countries set their own criteria for how the nomination and selection process works. By November 15th, each country must share its nominee with the other countries within their continental region.
The leaders of each NGB within the continental region will then vote to select one representative. Every country (with provisional or full IRF member status) gets one vote and ties are broken by the country with the largest membership. Continental region nominees must be selected and presented to the IRF by November 30th.
Finally, the General Assembly will be called together and all countries will vote to confirm the nominations.
