Inkscape is holding elections for two vacant Board Member seats. As you may know, two of our seven Inkscape Board Members have resigned a few months ago. Now that all the infrastructure we need for an election is in place, we want to invite our Official Project Members¹ to run for a seat on the board. We encourage everyone of you to consider increasing your involvement in the project by applying as a candidate for the Inkscape Board. If you are an Official Project Member, and would like to run or to nominate someone, please send your suggestion to inkscape.elections.committee@...3260... We will then ask the person you nominated (if not you) if they are willing to accept their candidature. Details about the Board's duties, the application process and the election schedule can be found below: Duties Typically the board votes on things such as project fund expenditures (travel, conferences, marketing materials for events, etc), trademark related issue, other legal issues that arise, etc. The board does not have responsibility currently for technical decisions for the project, and does not handle social/community issues where there are no financial or legal aspects to the problem. Board membership requires a commitment of time: At a minimum you will be expected to participate in votes on the mailing list, which typically occur with a frequency of about 0 to 3 per month. You are required to be on the board mailing list, which has a volume of about 30-50 emails per month; you're not required to participate in the discussions, but it is very strongly encouraged. We also solicit volunteers from the board to serve as as event managers, team leaders, fundraising coordinators, etc. - Again, not a requirement, but we value board members who can shoulder such duties for the project. Board members will serve on the Board until they resign (or are removed from the Board under the provisions of the Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement with Software Conservancy — available on https://inkscape.org/en/about/governance/). Candidature The election process starts with a Candidacy Period during which any Official Member may indicate interest in running for the positions. To register, please email inkscape.elections.committee@...3261..., giving your: * Name (legal name required when elected) * Current professional affiliation * Statement of contribution to Inkscape or related technologies * A personal statement At the end of the Candidacy Period, the applicants will be reviewed to verify eligibility. The list of candidates will then by published, and the community will have a chance to ask questions on the development mailing list. And then we will move forward with voting for the candidates. More information for voters will be sent before the election starts. Schedule The schedule for the elections will be as follows: * Candidacy period Start: August 5th, 2015 * Candidacy period End: August 18th, 2015 (08:00 UTC) * Publication of Candidates & start of Candidate Q&A: August 18th, 2015 * Election Start: August 18th, 2015 * Election End: September 2nd, 2015 (08:00 UTC) * Results Posted: September 4th, 2015 Full election procedures can be found here: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.board/+junk/board-docs/view/head:/r... The Inkscape Elections Committee ¹ For this election we are using r14222 of the AUTHORS file for the list of eligible voters and possible candidates http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape/trunk/view/14222/AUTHORS If you believe that there is an error in that version (omission or mistaken inclusion) please contact the election committee as soon as possible.