The Family History Information Standards Organisation is seeking nominations for the Board of Directors.
The election will be held online with voting being conducted from September 4, 2021 to September 18, 2021, followed by an Annual General Meeting held online on Saturday, September 25, 2021.
Five positions are open for election. These are:
Chair – the Chair is the head of FHISO and has overall responsibility for the smooth running of the Organisation.
Technical Coordinator – the chair of the Technical Standing Committee, with overall responsibility for FHISO’s standardisation and specification work.
Three Directors at Large to fill other roles on the board.
The Technical Coordinator position is vacant for this election because Richard Smith is retiring mid-term, due to work commitments.
One Director at Large position is continuing from their previous election and will be up for election again next year.
Terms of office run from the AGM on September 25, 2021 for two years.
It is expected that some board members will hold several roles, for instance, the roles of Secretary and Treasurer are currently held by the same individual. The details will depend on the skills and interests of those elected. See the bylaws (https://fhiso.org/bylaws) for more information.
Candidates standing for Chair or Technical Coordinator may also stand as a Director at Large, and we encourage this. The elections of Chair and Technical Coordinator are held first, and if the person elected is also standing as a Director at Large, they will be removed from the Director at Large election. Candidates may not stand as both Chair and Technical Coordinator.
If there are more than three candidates to serve as Directors at Large, a single election will be held for these three positions. The ballot will allow members to rank candidates in preference using the single transferable vote system, and the top candidates will be elected to the board.
Members who wish to put themselves forward as a candidate or who wish to suggest a possible candidate for an office are invited to contact us by email at fhiso@fhiso.org.
The FHISO Board is a small working board. Each member is expected to have their own remit which might be technical or administrative, and might involve outreach or promoting FHISO’s activities. We are looking for candidates who can commit the time needed to pursue their remit effectively, however we understand that a board made up of volunteers will have other commitments and try to make allowances for that. If you’d like to understand more about the work involved, contact us at fhiso@fhiso.org.
Our current board has members in many different time zones and we schedule our meetings at times to best suit board members. The working language of the board is English, but we will endeavour to support any board members for whom English is not their first language.
We are now looking to bring new members on to the board, with fresh ideas and new enthusiasm to help drive FHISO forwards in its mission. We hope you continue to believe in that mission, as we do, and ask that you consider whether you can help us achieve it by joining the board.
Even if you don’t feel able to stand for election to the board, we ask that you renew your membership and vote in the election. FHISO’s main expenses are the costs associated with being incorporated in Arizona. For a sustainable future, we need enough members to cover these costs. A larger membership also helps us ensure our work is progressing in the direction the genealogical community wants it to take.