Leadership and representation are important cornerstones of any organization. As the Society enters its 43rd year we face new challenges and opportunities, and we are excited to enter this important chapter with a deep bench of candidates ready to take the helm, with decades of collected expertise and experience from all over the globe, and many diverse aspects of our craft.
This year’s election is unique from those in the past since we have five (5) open board positions. The recent member vote on bylaw changes approved this change, which will see the Society leadership ladder shift from an officer panel with associated board of directors, to a more condensed, central board model.This new leadership model includes five (5) board members at-large, serving 2-year terms each. The new board will elect a presiding officer from their ranks that will serve a 2-year term. For the sake of this first election cycle, two (2) board members will serve 1-year terms; 3 board members will serve 2-year terms. For future annual elections, half of the board of directors would be up for re-election and potential new candidates would be welcomed to apply and run for the board.
LEARN MORE: Read more about the new board structure.
Election timeline:
- Wednesday, Sept. 1: The election will open at 9 a.m. ET. Current SND members will receive an email from Election Buddy that is their individual ballot.
- Tuesday, Sept 14: The election window will close at 11:59 p.m. ET.
- Wednesday, Sept 15: Candidates will be notified of the results and new board members will begin on-boarding as the new board.
- Thursday, Sept 16: SND will announce the new Board of Directors
As a reminder, here are your candidates for the SND Board of Directors:
- Björn Heselius (Sweden)
- Ryan Hildebrandt (United States of America)
- TK Sajeev Kumar (India)
- Rebecca R. Markovitz (United States of America)
- Tara McCarty (United States of America)
- Sean McKeown-Young (United States of America)
- Douglas Okasaki (United Arab Emirates)
Q&A with the candidates:
Last week, SND held a live Q&A session with members and the seven candidates. Candidates introduced themselves and their vision for the future of SND and answered questions from the audience. Questions not answered in the session due to time constraints were sent to the candidates for comment. You can read their answers on SND.org.
Members who were not able to attend the live Q&A session with the candidates last week can still watch the replay with their SND login.