2021 GOSH Community Council Election

The 2021 GOSH Community Council Election has ended, and you can read more about the elected council members here.

2021 Election Schedule

  • 25 Feb 2021 – Community Call #2 for feedback on the process
  • 5 March 2021 – Comments close on GOSH Governance Proposal
  • 26 March – Finalize election process, technology, managing and communicating results [i.e. final proposal published]
  • 2 April – Complete set-up of election infrastructure (platform, etc)
  • 2 April – appoint an independent observer [to be decided on the forum/next meeting]
    • 9(or 12) April – Open voter registration [should have all processes defined]
  • 13 April – Open nominations
  • 4 May – Close nominations, open consideration of candidates
  • 18 May at 16:00-17:00 UTC – Community Meeting #1
  • 20 May at 10:00-11:00 UTC – Community Meeting #2
  • 20 May at 23:59 UTC – Voter registration closes
  • 21 May – Voting starts [move to give two weekends for voting]
  • 31 May at 23:59 UTC – Voting closes
  • 2 June – Community Council announced

How do I register to vote?

Voter registration is now open and you can register here. Voter registration closed on May 20th.

How do I vote?

Voting will take place on the STAR Voting platform, which uses a combination of score voting, to pick two highest scoring candidates, and a “runoff” in which the finalist who is preferred on more ballots wins. You can read more about the STAR Voting platform and its methodology here

What about a tie?

If there were a tie between two candidates in the automatic runoff, whichever candidate scored the highest in the scoring round becomes the winner. If, however, two candidates tied in the automatic runoff and had the same score in the scoring round, we decided that we will flip a coin to determine who the winner is. The tied candidates will be notified before the coin toss as well.

Voting starts on May 21st and will close on May 31st at 23:59 UTC.

What is the GOSH Governance Working Group?

The GOSH Governance Working Group is responsible for putting in place the structure and processes necessary to formally seat a longer-term governing body, named the Community Council. The Governance Working Group thus considers their remit to be “minimum viable governance structure.”

The GOSH Governance Working Group has been working with the GOSH community via the Community Governance category on the GOSH forum and through community calls in order to communicate decisions surrounding the governance model.

You can view their governance proposal here.

What is the Community Council?

The Community Council we are planning to seat will oversee or delegate all subsequent tasks, questions and issues related to governance of the GOSH community. 

This scope will include building out more complete governance structures, as the current Governance Working Group is focused on resolving the minimum viable set of governance processes and design decisions required to seat the first Community Council.

Those elected to the Community Council will be referred to as Community Council Members. It is proposed that Community Council membership will persist for 2-year terms, with several 1-year terms seated in the first election to enable staggering of terms year over year.

For the first election, and only for the first election, candidates will run for a mix of 2-year and 1-year to start in order to establish staggered terms. This will enable balanced annual turnover moving forward, with e.g. 3 or 4 new members being elected each year. After the first election, all open seats will be for 2-year terms in subsequent elections.

Vacancies

All seven seats are subject to this election.

How do I learn more about candidates?

You can learn more about the candidates by reading their candidate statements on the forum.

Nominations

Individuals can nominate others or self-nominate for inclusion in the candidate pool here. Nominations closed on May 4th.

Candidates

You can see a list of the 2021 GOSH Community Council candidates here.

Non-candidacy items to be voted on (e.g. resolutions)

None

Administration

Independent Observer: Ankita Raturi, Gathering for Open Agricultural Technology (GOAT)

Election Secretary: Bri Johns, GOSH Community Coordinator