Election Announcement: Amending Steering Committee election procedures

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The Steering Committee will be holding a special election on October 10-14 regarding the following amendment to Steering Committee elections:

“Following an election, the new Steering Committee will meet jointly with the previous Steering Committee for no less than 60 days. For meetings during the first 30 first days, the new SC will not have voting privileges. After 30 days, voting privileges are transferred to the new SC.”

We believe this amendment is necessary to provide continuity in leadership following elections as the Steering Committee transitions to its new members. We envision the timeline as follows:

• November: Elections announced (90 days prior)
• January: Candidate applications due; lab meeting to discuss candidates
• February: Elections, first joint meeting, new committee nominates officers
• March: Second joint meeting, new committee elects officers, old committee attends meeting but no longer has voting rights
• April: New committee continues normal operations

An elected member, therefore, is obligated from the February in which they are elected through March of the following year. This amendment does not change the time period during which an elected Steering Committee has voting privileges.

To see how this amendment fits into existing governance rules, please go here. If you have questions regarding this amendment, you are welcome to add them to this pull request.

Given that the current Steering Committee is only the second to be elected by the community, we are committed to continue developing procedures and guidelines to best serve our community. Please stay tuned for information on how to vote!