Announcing the 2025 Governing Board elections

Today we kick off the second Governing Board election season for the Matrix.org Foundation! We start with a two week nomination period that opens on Saturday, May 3rd and closes on Friday, May 16th. This year’s deadlines are anchored to the UTC timezone, rather than the AOE approach that we used with mixed results last year.

We’ll be doing our best to reach out to everyone in the Gold, Silver, Individual, and Associate Member constituent groups to let them know they are eligible to nominate candidates for the election.

If you are interested in nominating someone – or yourself – to be a candidate in this election, read this post in its entirety.

🔗Election schedule

Here is the timeline for this election season, which will happen in the second quarter of every year:

• Announcement on Monday, April 28
• Nominations from Saturday, May 3 to Friday, May 16
• Campaigning from Saturday, May 17 to Friday, May 30
• Voting from Saturday, May 31 to Friday, June 13
• Results announced on Monday, June 16

🔗How our elections work

Our Governing Board is made up of 9 different constituency groups across 3 categories: nonprofit and community representatives, funder representatives, and foundation representatives. Each group has been allocated seats on the board, gets to nominate its own slate of candidates, and gets to vote within that slate of candidates.

For example, Individual Members get to nominate themselves, and vote on the Individual Members who are qualified candidates. The only exception is with the Managing Director (hi, that’s me) who automatically gets a seat on the Governing Board, but that’s just one seat of many.

Here is the composition of seats on the Governing Board:

Learn how to become a member and see a list of our current organizational members.

We will be seating candidates for half of the constituency groups in 2025, namely: Gold, Silver, Individual, and Associate Members.

There are currently no term limits, but term limits are a best practice in open governance so we intend to introduce them as we find our collective footing.

🔗Who can nominate

You must be a member of one of the constituency groups in order to nominate yourself or someone else to be a candidate in the election. By far our largest constituency group are Individual Members, who number in the 100’s. If you have donated at least $60 USD to the Foundation since April 20, 2024 on Donorbox, then you are eligible to nominate and vote. You must donate before the election period begins, as we cannot change voter rolls after that.

All nominees must have consented to nomination before being nominated and must be a community member in good standing. That means they must have a clean track record with respect to our Code of Conduct. We want our Governing Board to be a clearing house for a variety of priorities and perspectives, and to be able to hold space for each other even when there are disagreements.

🔗Who can vote

All members of each constituency group are entitled to vote on the candidates within that constituency group. We will be reaching out to everyone we have contact information for, to ensure we have our voter rolls together before voting begins at the end of May.

We will hold an election in each of the four constituencies that are up for election this year, even if a given constituency has fewer candidates than there are seats allocated for them on the Governing Board. This is, effectively, a vote of confidence.

If you believe you are eligible to participate but have not heard from us or OpaVote – the election system we have chosen for this year’s elections – by May 24th, please email us promptly. We build our voter rolls on May 31st and can't change them after that!

All of the candidates will be listed on an elections page here on our website which we’ll publish on May 17th.

🔗How to prepare yourself

If you want to be a candidate in the election, there are a few things you should know:

• All candidates will be listed on our website, grouped by the constituency group. (See last year's election center here.)
• We do not require people to use their “legal name.”
• Candidates who are nominated by an organizational member will have their affiliation listed.
• We expect candidates to provide a short bio and a short statement, collectively covering qualifications and priorities. Candidates may also provide a link to an extended statement or platform on their personal blog or website.
• You are encouraged to make yourself available for conversation with members of your constituency group.
• The period for campaigning runs from May 17th to May 30th. Please note our community Code of Conduct while campaigning.

🔗What to expect if you win

Congratulations! All of the winners will be announced on June 16th, but since the elections conclude on June 13th, you may get an email with the results of the election you participated in before June 16th.

All elected representatives will be added to a private mailing list and Matrix room so that they can introduce themselves and communicate in between meetings. I will be reaching out to every elected representative to meet one-on-one, get acquainted, and answer questions before we convene for their first Governing Board meeting.

The Governing Board meets as a full board at least twice a year, for at least 90 minutes each time, and meetings are facilitated by the duly elected Chair or Vice Chair. Expect one meeting before the end of the year, and another before the next election.

You are likely to receive a packet of materials before each meeting which you will be expected to have reviewed. Most meetings will be held online, though we may convene meetings in-person, such as at The Matrix Conference. We will make every effort to make in-person meetings accessible to remote participants, and no official business will ever happen without appropriate notice, quorum, and minutes.

While the Governing Board is an advisory board, members are encouraged to play a role in helping to carry out the activities that support the staff in delivering on the Foundation’s collective remit, such as coalescing priorities to share with the Spec Core Team and connecting with contributors and funders to implement proposals.

Most of the work of the Governing Board happens in its Committees and their Working Groups, who meet in between Governing Board meetings and present their assessments and recommendations to the Governing Board.

🔗How to nominate

We will update this blog post with a link to a nomination form and a template document on Friday, May 2nd. We’ll be reaching out to everyone who is eligible and whose contact information we have to let them know. We’ll also be announcing it on our social channels.

All nominations should be submitted through the form, though anyone who has technical difficulties can fill out the template document and email it to [email protected].

For discussion related to the Governing Board and the elections, we encourage people to drop by the Office of the Governing Board (#governing-board-office:matrix.org).

Thank you for your ongoing support, and good luck to all the candidates in the upcoming elections!