Election Nominees for the 2023 Executive Council

The election for Community-Elected members of the 2022 Executive Council will be open from 5 December and will close on 11 December at midnight, anywhere on Earth.

If you are a Voting Member, you should have received an email from The Carpentries Core Team with the subject “Confirming eligibility to vote in The Carpentries 2022 Executive Council Elections”. If you have not received it, but you feel you have contributed sufficiently to this community, please complete the Application for Voting Membership before 29 November.

All Voting Members will receive a personal ballot and voting instructions from The Carpentries via ElectionBuddy by 5 December. For more information on the Executive Council and election process, please check the bylaws and this blog post. If you have questions or concerns about the election process, please contact the Executive Council by completing this form.

The self-nominated candidates for the two Community-Elected seats were asked to submit statements about their previous work with The Carpentries as well as their specific interests for Executive Council participation. Candidate responses are presented below in the order in which their applications were received.

Sarah Stevens

University of Wisconsin-Madison

What is your previous involvement with The Carpentries?

Instructor, Trainer, Local Workshop Host and Community Organizer, Host of Midwest Carpentries Community, Incubator Lesson Developer and Maintainer, Previous Instructor Development Committee Member, Discussion Host, Executive Council Member and current chair

What would you do as a member of the Executive Council to contribute to the growth and success of the Carpentries community?

I would work to support the governance of the Carpentries, building upon the Carpentries Core Values. This includes…

• acting openly to bring the community in to decisions made by the Executive Council (EC), - “empowering one another” by helping to create an environment for EC members to contribute,
• valuing all contributions in helping to create systems that recognize the efforts of community members,
• continuing to always learn and building upon what I’ve learned about governance and the EC in my current term,
• working to make the Carpentries Community inclusive of all through policies that welcome and actively include individuals across the globe with a variety of different background and identities.

I will focus on creating policies that encapsulate all the Carpentries Core Values if elected to another term and helping to keep these values at the forefront as we work to transition into a non-profit organization. With any new position it takes time to learn about the role and its responsibilities. I feel I have just gotten started with my work in the past 1.5 years and hope to continue building on that experience in another term of service.

Jannetta Steyn

Newcastle University

What is your previous involvement with The Carpentries?

I was certified as an instructor in ~April 2020 and then as a trainer towards the end of 2021. I have been organising workshops for my university on a semi-monthly basis since 2020 as well as volunteering on several centrally organised workshops. I am a contributor and reviewer for Glosario and I have created about four lessons that I also maintain in the Incubator. I am also the organiser of CarpentriesOffline for which I received an SSI fellowship to further its development.

What would you do as a member of the Executive Council to contribute to the growth and success of the Carpentries community?

I am happy to contribute in any way I can to further promote the work of The Carpentries. First and foremost, I would fulfill the duties of an executive council member in dedicating time to attend meetings, evaluate financial plans and promote fiscal responsibility ensuring that resources are used wisely, and provide feedback on any formal motions. If I were elected as a council member I would bring to the table expertise and enthusiasm as both an active instructor and an organiser of 20+ Carpentries workshops, including courses in both the UK and South Africa. I have a passion for promoting Carpentries in developing countries, and have made a lot of contacts in Africa as well as contributing significantly to the Afrikaans translation of the Carpentries Glosario. As an active member of The Carpentries community I would relish the chance to be involved in strategic planning to prevent stagnation and promote Carpentries as a global platform for education. This is something I have actively been contributing to in the last few years by taking part in African Carpentries Community meetings, the mentoring programme and CarpentriesOffline.