At the last Board meeting, it was agreed that we would start to draft some Election Rules to cover the election of the Directors at the AGM. These rules come under the remit of Article 28 (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK_v2.0/AoA#Rules) and nothing in these rules can contradict anything that is written in the Articles of Association themselves.
I have put some questions below that people might want to consider and I'd appreciate other peoples' input as I put a draft together.
Many thanks!
Note: relevant clauses in the Articles of Association include:
14.1 A Director must be a natural person aged 16 years or older except
that a person aged under 18 may not be appointed a Director if after
their appointment a majority of Directors would be aged under 18.14.3 The number of Directors shall be not less than three but (unless otherwise determined by ordinary resolution) shall not be subject to any maximum.
16.1 Providing that one or more valid nominations for Directors are received, all Directors shall retire from office at each Annual General Meeting17.2 No person may be appointed a Director at any general meeting unless (a) he or she is retiring as a Director; or (b) not less than fourteen nor more than thirty-five clear days before the date of the meeting, the charity is given notice
17.4 Where a vacancy has arisen due to the resignation, death or ineligibility of a Director, the remaining Directors may by a unanimous decision at a meeting of the Directors appoint a person who is willing to act to fill the vacancy.
Regarding the number of Directors, when these articles were being drafted, the Board agreed they would put an Ordinary Resolution to the first AGM establishing a cap (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK_v2.0/Board_meetings/2008-10-13#Proceedings_of_Directors). So the first question is:
The interim Board has five directors, but at the time it was stated
that "A smaller Board is beneficial in the early stages as it helps
with
certain approvals especially Bank Account opening. The intention is
that subsequent Boards will be larger."
(http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK_v2.0/Candidate_FAQs#Why_is_the_initial_Board_to_consist_of_only_five_members.3F)
A quick review of other chapters shows the German one has 7 Directors
(http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Deutschland#Vorstand), the
Austrian 8 (http://www.wikimedia.at/node/8), the French 9
(http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikim%C3%A9dia_France) and the
Australian has 7 (http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Committee)
Q1: How many directors do you think the first permanent board should have as a maximum?The interim Board was elected using the "approval voting" system. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approval_voting) When the Board was discussing these Articles, (http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_UK_v2.0/Board_meetings/2008-10-13/IRC&action=edit§ion=1 see ~22:20) the general feeling was that approval voting should be used again, but this would be left to the Election Rules to specify.
Q2: Do you agree that the Board should be elected using the "Approval Voting" system?
Under the approval voting system, the candidates who receive the greatest number of positive votes are elected. For the interim Board, a proviso was added that candidates
would only be elected if they received a majority of votes. When discussing the articles, it was agreed that there should be an exception to this so that the candidate who receives the most votes will always be elected - even if they dont get more than 50%.
Q3: Do you agree that candidates who receive 50% or less of the vote will not be elected?
Q4: Do you agree that as an exception to this rule, the candidate who receives the most votes will always be elected - even if they dont get more than 50%?
Q5: Is there any way that you think the election should be run differently to the election of the interim Board?Thanks for your help with these questions.
regards,