Eligibility
Eligible candidates are all OSI individual members whose full membership was current (started or renewed and paid) no later than one week before the opening of nominations. Eligible voters are all individual members whose full membership was current at the time voting opens.
“Full membership” includes Supporting, Lifetime, and Professional members, but does not include Basic (free) members.
Candidates are required to participate in two mandatory educational sessions held by the Board before the voting starts.
Refer to the elections page for this year’s timeline.
Nomination
Eligible candidates may self-nominate through the form on the OSI web site (now closed) , which includes space for a full candidate profile. Full members may also nominate others as candidates, but should first make sure that the candidate is both eligible and willing to serve. The staff will check eligibility against our database and will provide further instructions to the candidate.
Eligible and approved candidates will have their personal candidate profile page posted on the OSI web site. Members of OSI will be able to ask questions of each candidate before the election concludes. OSI may host additional events or forums where candidates and members may get to know each other.
A person can only be a candidate in the Individual Election, or be nominated to run in the Affiliate Election, depending on eligibility, but may not run in both in the same year.
Voting for Individual Board Members
Before the start of voting, OSI staff will compile a list of all eligible OSI Individual Full Members. This list of members will be added to the voting software. Instructions on how to vote will be sent via email to all voting members. Each person may vote only once in the Individual election, regardless of the number of memberships that person has; if any person votes more than once all of their ballots will be discarded.
Voting will be open for 10 days, usually including two weekends. Results will be announced within five days of the close of voting.
The results of elections for both Individual and Affiliate member board seats are advisory with the OSI Board making the formal appointments to open seats based on the community’s votes.