Everyone on the staff and Board of the Drupal Association would like to congratulate our newest board member:

Addison Berry.

In addition to congratulating Addison, please join me in thanking the 23 other candidates who put themselves out there in service of Drupal and stood for election. 

This was the fourth election we've held for At-Large board seats at the Drupal Association. This year we had two specific goals for the elections:

  • Increase the diversity of the candidates - Although we only had one female candidate, we saw great success by other measures of diversity. 24 candidates came from 14 different countries - including South American and Asian countries. 
  • Increase voter turnout - We fielded 1,432 votes in this election. Our pool of eligible voters was 159,758, so that means our voter tunrout was .89%. This is still low, but a vast improvement over the last election, which saw a .36% turnout. 

Our next steps will be to reach out to the candidates for their evaluation of the elections experience. We also want to hear from you. Please tell us about your experience with the elections process in the comments below so that we can include them in our planning for the 2016 elections.

Flickr photo: Kodak Views

Comments

sirtet’s picture

I don't really know what the At Large board is/does. Some drupal community thing i think.

I did not bother trying to find out, i just voted. Maybe (maybe not) it would be possible to state more clearly and more often what the board/the election is about, to get more voters...

Also, to make the participation % less depressive, it could be analyzed in more detail who could be likely to vote. I think a voter needed to log in once in a year or so? And maybe do one post in that time? That's good as an entrance barrier, but it's not likely to get such a person voting.
So i'd also see eg. how many of the people with min. 10 posts/year did vote. Get a percentage based on users who are likely to be attracted to the voting.

holly.ross.drupal’s picture

Hi Sirtet - 

We worked pretty ahrd to make sure the community knows what the baord does and how the election process works. Here are a couple of examples that will help answer your questions:

And thanks for your other suggestions. We'll be debriefing with the candidates and our staff to improve the process for next time.

andres.avila’s picture

It would be nice to have access to the actual results and vote count, you know, like any regular election. 

holly.ross.drupal’s picture

Thanks Andres - 

We have not released the raw election data in the past. The board decided that it didn't do anyone any good to learn who got the least votes, and that it would just lead to bad feelings. We don't want to discourage candidates from participating in the future. 

However, the point has been raised several times today, so I will take it back to the board for discussion. Be patient while we find the time for the conversation.

 

catch’s picture

Can always list individual results for the top few candidates but not the bottom half. Quite commonly happens in polls if not so much results.

andres.avila’s picture

This actually makes a lot of sense and sounds like the most reasonable option. 

holly.ross.drupal’s picture

Thanks Catch - I will present that as one of the options to consider with the board.

mr.ashishjain’s picture

Absolutely, it should be made open

rcross’s picture

Congrats Addi! I'm sure you'll represent the community well. 

fwiw, I was very encouraged and excited to see candidates from Asia this time. Also, while there was only 1 female candidate, it is also worth mentioning that the board currently has 4 women of 11. With the addition of Addison, that will increase our gender ratio to 42% which is great. The DA staff is also doing well with 16 of 29 (55%!) and we have great female leaders/executives. I'm sure we can continue to improve, but I'm personally quite proud of us and don't want to forget that. 

adshill’s picture

Congratulations to Addison... and to all involved from the DA, the candidates and the community - the results show great progress and I think thats all you can ask for. I love seeing democracy in action and while improvements can always be made, the results here make me very happy.

Lets go for even better in 2016 - maybe skip the 1% mark and go direct for 2%?! :) 

kattekrab’s picture

The reality is that most of the people eligible to vote simply have no idea the elections are happening or what they are for.

I've long advocated that we should send everyone an email about this basic element of governance, but this has been rejected by some as being spam. 

Having the right to vote, but never being told you have it is almost worse than not having it at all. 

 

 

 

mr.ashishjain’s picture

I think, its a matter of how much you are willing to engage yourself. An end user is free to create an account on drupal.org and follow its happenings/camps/news/cons... everything. If a user is inclined and interested in whats happening in the community, I am sure he or she would know about such activities just like we do when elections happens in our society/city/country. We cannot force anybody though, but yes they are free to visit drupal.org and see whats happening there..

 

Thanks

Ashish Jain | AddWebSolution

www.addwebsolution.com