Hi all, This weekend's meetup will feature the elections of WMKE's board (at last!). So, there's a draft of the election details here: http://wikimedia.or.ke/Board_Elections. Kindly have a look at it and redact wherever necessary. The actual text is below. Sincerely, Abbas. ===Preamble===Wikimedia Kenya is seeking to appoint five candidates to sit on the Board of Trustees for one year, starting 1 March 2012. The five new members of the Board will help decide the future direction of Wikimedia Kenya. Board membership is unpaid. ===Nominations===Wikimedia Kenya wishes to appoint five excellent board members and believe this can best be achieved by selecting from a large number of varied and skilled candidates. Therefore, we call for nominations by everyone who believes they or someone they know would be suitable. The chapters ask that this call for candidates be distributed as widely as possible through such forums as mailing lists, blogs and social media. The successful candidates will be committed to the Wikimedia mission and willing and able to engage constructively with the stakeholders of the movement, including the chapter volunteers and Wikip|media contributors that provide it with essential support. The successful candidates will have: *The ability to provide expertise to the board in its goal of implementing a coherent vision on how Wikimedia projects work; * Sensitivity to complex issues surrounding the multiplicity of languages, cultures, and jurisdictions; * Knowledge and understanding of the governance of international non-profit organizations, balancing autonomy and subsidiarity; * The ability to think strategically and to work both as part of a team and independently; * A good standard of written and oral English and Swahili (fluency in additional language would be well regarded); * Sufficient time to devote to the role of board member, and the ability and willingness to travel. Increasing the geographical diversity of current board membership would be an advantage. ===Rules===This section is a copy and paste from the bylaws' * Members of the Board shall be elected using the approval voting system, that is, the candidate who receives the greatest number of positive votes are elected. * The board member shall be elected individually and the board will distribute the functions (of chairperson, treasurer, secretary, etc.) amongst themselves * All voting for election shall be by secret ballot. In case of a tie, a re-election shall be made. * Ballot papers shall also be made available to members entitled to vote who attend the AGM in person. * A member is not entitled to vote at a general meeting unless all dues that are payable by the member to the Chapter have been paid. * On a poll, votes may be given either personally or by proxy. * A member can only give his proxy to another member and no voting member may hold more than one additional proxy. [Details about proxy voting are in the bylaws] ===Process===1. The chapter will appoint a moderator and deputy moderator to manage the election. This is intended to be very simple: The moderators are responsible for keeping the wider Wikimedia community updated with the election progress; publicizing the call for nominations; and overseeing the actual elections. The moderators should not be candidates, but they can participate in the process. 2. All candidate statements should be sent to the moderators and/or Wikimedia Kenya wiki. 3. Chapter members will have the opportunity to ask questions to candidates. Candidates are encouraged, but not obliged, to answer all questions put to them. The Q&A will take place by any appropriate means devised by the moderators (e.g. by email, F2F, etc). 4. Voting will take place on [[insert date]].