Talking about board seats...
Sue...
I'd like to acknowledge the fact that local associations are apparently unable to create a separate mailing list for discussing the nomination of chapter representatives. It did not appear to me to be a huge unaccessible task, but unfortunately, that's a fact. Not the right infrastructure I guess. I even envisionned to create a Google list, that the idea really turned me off :-)
What have you tried? A request on bugzilla.mediawiki.org would be the best way, I think (I've searched and can't find one there). Unless the sysadmins have orders from on high not to give you a mailing list, I can't see why they wouldn't be able to do it pretty quickly.
Hopefully, in two years from now, for next elections (we can set it up for ourselves as a GOAL), we'll be able to host a list to discuss WMF rep, but since that's not the case right now, I'd like to officially (and humbly) ask that the WMF set up a wiki for us to discuss the issue. After much thinking, it seems to me that setting up a list would not be the easiest way to come to a consensual agreement, whilst a wiki could host at the same time, discussions and votes if necessary.
This wiki would not be public. Its members would be chapter board members.
The way I see it, there are two things the chapters need to decide. A method for selecting chapter reps to the WMF board, and then actually selecting them. I can see why the latter may need to be private (that would depend on the method chosen), but why can't the former be public? Or, at least, publicly viewable - discussion sometimes moves faster if you restrict who can take part.