With some delay, we are happy today to finally announce the official start of the election period for the first democratically elected IAM International Board!
— What is the IAM International Board ? —
The IAM International Board will be a combination of 10 representatives (2 from each major geographical region; Americas, Africa, Asia, Oceania and Europe) who will lead the IAM by sharing the various responsibilities needed to bring the organisation forward. The board members will bring their own opinions and viewpoints to the table, and work on shaping and developing the IAM on behalf of its members and the memory community.
— Why should you apply? —
Joining the IAM International Board means volunteering to dedicate a part of your time in the upcoming year for the benefit of our organisation and community. Along with that, it brings an opportunity for you to have a significant impact on the development of our organisation in the upcoming year.
Being a leader of the IAM also means being close to people. As a board member you will be acting on behalf of the members of the organisation, and it will be important for you to understand their needs. As such you will have a unique opportunity, together with your fellow board members, to establish connections with members from the whole organisation. There will be a lot of ideas, new knowledge and a lot of inspiring moments, and all of these will help to make your year memorable.
Sounds interesting? Below you can read more about how the election will happen.
— Election Timeline — (UPDATED)
- 30th October – Announcement of election and election timeline. It’s now possible to apply as a candidate.
- 28 November – New DL to apply as candidate and to submit a Motivation Letter + Short Bio. The election committee makes all the Motivation Letters and Bios public at the same time and opens the public question round.
- 04 December – Public question round closes and Election committee gathers all the questions and forwards it to the candidates (the candidates can already see the questions, but we will sum them up for the candidates’ convenience).
- 08 December – DL for candidates to send their answers to the questions, to the election committee, who then makes all the answers public at the same time.
- 09 December – This is the last day to become an IAM member to be eligible to vote.
- 11 December – Election committee sends out mail to all registered voters, in accordance with the election rules.
- 13 December – Voting opens
- 20 December – Voting closes
- 21-22 December – Announcement of final voting results.
*The dates are estimations. Small variations might happen.
— Detailed Election Procedure —
The full Election Rules can be found here, but we hope that the information below can complement this and help straighten out some questions about the general procedure that this election will follow. However, if you are seriously thinking about applying, we would encourage you to read the Election Rules in full at least once.
Who can apply?
Any IAM member who is at least 21 years old can apply. If you are not a member yet, you can register here.
The Region you will be representing
As mentioned above, the IAM Board will consist of 2 representatives from each major geographical region (Americas, Africa, Asia, Oceania and Europe). When you apply you automatically represent the continent of your nationality, unless you have never competed before. In that case your candidacy automatically is to represent the continent of your current residence.
For example: a French memory athlete (Europe) living in Canada (America) would count as a candidate from Europe. On the other hand, a French arbiter (Europe) living in Canada (America), who has never competed before, would count as a candidate from America.
The Application
In order to apply for the Board you need to submit a Motivation Letter, and a Short Bio about yourself (and optional, a picture which we can use to introduce you). With the Motivation Letter you have a chance to address the memory community and explain why you are applying to the IAM International Board, what you would like to accomplish during your mandate and why they should vote for you. With the Bio you have a chance to present shortly who you are, both in your normal and professional life, as well as in the memory community. This doesn’t have to be much. A few sentences / 1-2 paragraphs should be enough.
The format of both the Motivation Letter and Bio is completely up to you. However, there is a strict 1 page limit for either of them (max one page each), so be concise. Anything exceeding 1 page will be cut off and not be presented.
When you have your Motivation Letter and Bio ready (and optional, a picture which we can use to introduce you), please send it to the Election Committee at elections@iam-memory.org with the subject “IAM International Board – Application”. We will then send you a confirmation that we have received your application.
The deadline to apply is the 21st of November, at 23:59 (GMT). Late applications will NOT be considered, so be sure to send it on time. We are not liable for any technical (or other) issues on your side. Once the application deadline passes, the election committee will publish all of the applications so that the IAM members and the memory community can take part of them.
Public Question Round
In order to give the memory community a better chance to get to know you and what you represent, they will have the opportunity to ask you and the other candidates questions. The question round will be public, in the sense that all questions will be visible for anyone at all times. A question can either be for one, or multiple, specific candidates, or can be addressed at all of them.
Once the deadline for the question round passes, the election committee will gather all the questions that have been asked and forward them to the candidates in private. The candidates will then have a few days to answer the questions in writing, and once finished, they should be sent back to the Election Committee. The Election Committee will then publish the candidates’ answers at the same time.
Although the candidates can see the questions at all times, they should not reply directly to them, but rather send their answers to the Election Committee within the timeframe given to them. This way the candidates’ answers will not be influenced by what other candidates have written.
Public Online Meetings
Apart from the public question round, we will also try to set up some online meetings (Skype, Hangouts or similar) with the candidates. This will give you a dynamic opportunity to talk with your candidates, and to ask questions in person. Since the people in the memory community (and the candidates too) are from many different countries and timezones, we will not be able to organise a single online meeting for all of the candidates. Based on the candidates’ availability, we might even do several online meetings per region. These online meetings will be purely optional for the candidates, but we hope that they see this as a good opportunity to get to know some of you a bit better, and what kind of things are important to you. In the end they are candidating to represent your region and the opinion of the people in it.
Voting Round
The voting round will take place for seven days. Every IAM member who is eligible to vote (see the Election Rules for eligibility criteria!) will receive instructions for this at least 2 days prior to the beginning of the voting round. If you have not received an email about this (also check your spam folder), please contact the Election Committee at elections@iam-memory-org.
Voters will have one vote for each candidate in their own region. Each voter has to vote “yes”, “no” or “abstain” for every candidate. Voters can vote “yes” for more than one candidate. The rules for which region you are representing and voting in, are the same as for the candidacy.
The candidates with the most “yes”-votes are elected. If two candidates receive an equal number of “yes” votes, the one with less “no” votes shall prevail.
If there are only two candidates for the two continental Board seats, each candidate can gain a Board seat if he/she has received “yes” votes from more than half of the registered voters of that continental region. “Abstain” counts as neither “yes” nor “no”. The same applies if there is only one candidate.
Once the deadline for the voting round passes, the Election Committee will tally the votes and announce the results.
— After the Election —
While the Election ends on the 16th of December, the new Board only fully takes over on the 1st of February, 2019. During this transition period you will have time to prepare yourself and your ideas for the upcoming year. This will also give the current IAM Team time to pass on their knowledge to you and your fellow Board members.
— Are you ready to take the challenge? —
In case you are thinking about running for the IAM International Board, you are very welcome to approach us from the election committee to talk about it. Talking to us is of course not binding, and you don’t have to run for the Board if you do, but it’s something that we would like to offer to you to help you become more prepared for your potential candidacy.
In case you have already made up your mind, we’re looking forward to seeing your motivation letter and Bio in our inboxes soon! 🙂
The Election Committee,
Florian, Guillaume