[Announcements] Apereo Board Elections

[Dolphin Ian]

Dear Colleague

As you will be aware, Jasig and Sakai have merged in order to better serve the needs of the higher education community. Our new organisation, Apereo, came into being in late December. 

Within this new framework, our projects will remain largely self-organising and continue to rely to a significant degree on contributed and volunteer effort. The same is true of our new Foundation. Over the course of the next eighteen months we will develop Apereo to better serve existing projects and their communities, and help incubate new and innovative software and approaches. 

To accomplish this we need the active engagement of our communities and a strong, representative board. During January, we will be electing four new Apereo board members. These will be elected by the membership as a whole, and will join the four representatives each of Jasig and Sakai who have already been appointed.

The timetable for the election process is as follows: 

Monday 14th January - Call for nominations

Tuesday 22nd January - Nominations close

Wednesday 30th January - Publish candidates personal statements on Apereo web site - election notice out - polls open

Thursday 7th February - Polls close

There will be a membership meeting associated with the ballot. Notice of this teleconference will be circulated shortly. This is a tight schedule, but we have much to do, and I am sure you understand the need for solid, inclusive governance. 

Information on the responsibilities of Board members can be found in the Apereo bylaws, which can be found at http://www.apereo.org/governance/bylaws . The existing Board has also put together a guidance note on expectations associated with Board membership which can be found at http://www.apereo.org/governance/board-member-expectations .

If you wish to nominate someone to serve on the Board, please mail Deborah Smith (dsmith at concentra-cms.com), providing the nominees name and contact details. It would be helpful if you could check that the individual is willing to stand, but this is not essential. Please note that self nomination is allowed.

Lastly, please consider standing for Board election yourself. This represents a significant opportunity to play a shaping role in the formative stage of our new organisation. Your participation and energy would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Ian

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Ian Dolphin
Executive Director, Apereo Foundation
ian.dolphin at apereo.org