Election of New GIJN Board — 2014

Board Election Rules
Candidates for Board of Directors
Results

The membership of the Global Investigative Journalism Network has now decided to restructure the current board, the Volunteer Group, with a new board of 15 members.

The election committee, consisting of Nils Mulvad and Margo Smit, accepted nominations of board candidates until June 8, 2014.

Board Election Rules

To be eligible to run, candidates must belong to a GIJN member organization and their candidacy should have the support of that organization. Candidates were required to send to Nils Mulvad a photo, a short bio, and a statement about why they want to join the GIJN board. This information is now posted below.

One of the board-member positions is reserved for a representative of the host organization for the next global conference, in this case SKUP of Norway.

Because both Nils and Margo are running for the board, the administration of voting is being conducted by John Bones of Norway.

In the board election, each membership organization can vote for a maximum of 14 board-members.

If only 14 or less had run for the board, there would have been no election and all would have been regarded as elected and would have immediately replaced the volunteer group.

Because 15 or more candidates are running, the election of the board is taking place from June 9 to June 16, 2014. As with previous votes on registration and board structure, the voting will be electronic and the voters are the designated representatives of GIJN member organizations. Each organization receives one vote.

Immediately after the end of the election, the new board will replace the volunteer group as the leadership of the organization until the next membership meeting, which will take place in October 2015 at the conference in Norway.

For the first election, 7 members will be elected for 1 year, and 7 members for 2 years. Subsequent elections will be held annually, and all positions will be for 2-year terms. (This is in accord with best nonprofit practice and will help ensure continuity, with half the board elected every year.)

One board position is allocated to a representative from the host organization of the next Global Investigative Journalism Conference, meaning that there will normally be a total of eight at-large members who can be elected from any region.

The board will also include at least one representative from the following six regions: Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East/North Africa, North America, Latin America/Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Each member-organization is therefore now allocated to a region. Please check the region designation at this link.

No region will have more than five members of the board, unless we do not have enough candidates to fill up the board from designated regions. The board member for the organization hosting the next global conference does not count in this calculation.

The regions will be divided in these two election groups:

Group 1: North America, Latin America/Caribbean, Middle East/North Africa

Group 2: Europe, Asia/Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa

By flipping a coin we will this time decide which group has candidates elected for a 1-year term and which group has candidates elected for a 2-year term. For subsequent elections all board members will be elected for a two-year term.

A regional board member will be elected if he/she receives the most votes from organisations in one of the six designated regions.

At-large members will be elected if they receive the largest vote totals from all membership organisations (and are not elected as a regional member). If two candidates get an equal number of votes, the election committee will flip a coin to determine the winner This time we will flip the coin to determine which candidate is elected for one year and which for 2 years.

Candidates for Board of Directors

All candidates are listed below in alphabetical order, followed by their designated region:

Mzilikazi wa Afrika (Africa)

Umar Cheema (Asia)

Jan Gunnar Furuly (Europe)

Marina Walker Guevara (North America)

Anton Harber (Africa)

Mark Horvit (North America)

Brant Houston (North America)

Carlos Eduardo Huertas (Latin America)

Mark Lee Hunter (Europe)

Oleg Khomenok (Europe)

Attila Mong (Europe)

Nils Mulvad (Europe)

Paul Radu (Europe)

Fernando Rodrigues (Latin America)

Cecil Rosner (North America)

Rana Sabbagh (Middle East/North Africa)

David Schraven (Europe)

Bruce Shapiro (North America)

Margo Smit (Europe)

Kjetil Stormark (Europe)