Full transparency: A primer on the OHBM Council election process

THE OHBM NOMINATING COMMITTEE

Leadership of OHBM is the responsibility of a duly elected 15 member Council supported and extended by numerous committees, chapters, special interest groups (SIGs), and a professional Executive Office staff team. Have you ever wondered who the people running OHBM are and how they got there?

This is how it works: Every year, just before the Annual meeting, elections for each of the 5 Council positions (Chair, Program Chair, Education Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary) are held.  Each elected Council member serves a 3-year term (position-elect, position, past-position) to ensure continuity in leadership. A Nominating Committee, chaired by the current Secretary and composed of the 3 Secretaries, 3 Chairs, and the Chair of the Diversity & Inclusivity Committee, organize and manage the nomination process as detailed in Article 5 of the OHBM Bylaws.

The Nominating Committee sends out an email soliciting all members interested in leadership positions to submit an application. In addition, they also encourage individuals who are actively engaged in the work of running OHBM (e.g. serving on a Committee or volunteering to help with any of the myriad OHBM sponsored activities) who demonstrate strong leadership potential and a commitment to the OHBM society to submit an application. Once the deadline for nominations has passed, the Nominating Committee chooses a shortlist of candidates based on their leadership experience and commitment to OHBM, while doing their best to ensure any final outcome of the voting fairly represents the current geographic and gender make-up of our global OHBM community.

After a shortlist of candidates is chosen, a link to the ballot is sent out to all active OHBM members via email—as it was for this year’s elections on Wednesday, 11 May.  To help members with the decision process, each candidate provides an abbreviated CV and a statement of why they are seeking to be elected and how they plan to serve OHBM. The ballot is open for about two weeks, and results are announced at the Annual Meeting - this year at both the in-person Closing Session in Glasgow and online in the General Assembly and Feedback Forum (GAFF) that will take place on June 28th at 12 noon GMT (find your local time here).

If you are a member of OHBM, please vote before the deadline on May 26th at 03:59 UTC. Having your vote counted ensures that our OHBM leadership represents our members’ values, wishes and proposed actions, as best as possible. More on the election process can be found here.