Announcing the 2026 Governing Board elections

The Governing Board of the Foundation is a key player in the governance of Matrix: it allows representatives of every stakeholder of the ecosystem to have a stronger involvement in how the project is managed with both an advisory role to the Guardians, Foundation staff, and Spec Core Team, as well as a participatory one, via the Committees and Working Groups. It is a great opportunity for those who wish to be a bit more involved in the project to have more impact, whilst also representing their constituency.

Today we kick off the third Governing Board election round, starting with a two week nomination period that opens on Saturday, 2nd May and closes on Friday, 15th May.

In order to keep some continuity, we only rotate half of the board every year, and even years see the seats for representatives of the Guardians, Spec Core Team, Platinum members and Ecosystem members to be up for renewal. However there are a few other constituencies with empty seats and a couple of people stepping down which means that we will expand the list of constituencies up for election. So there will be seats coming up for election across the following constituencies this year:

• Guardians (in cycle)
• Spec Core Team (in cycle)
• Platinum (in cycle)
• Ecosystem (in cycle)
• Silver (out of cycle, both seats)
• Individual (out of cycle, one seat)
• Associate (out of cycle, one seat as the other one is filled)
• Gold (out of cycle, tbc seats)

We’ll be doing our best to reach out to every constituent group 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. It touches on:

1. The logistics of the election
2. Who we are looking for
3. How to prepare yourself and our expectations

🔗Logistics

🔗Election schedule

Here is the full schedule for our election season this year:

• Announcement on Monday, 27th April
• Nominations from Saturday, 2nd May to Friday, 15th May
• Campaigning from Saturday, 16th May to Friday, 29th May
• Voting from Saturday, 30th May to Friday, 12th June
• Results announced on Monday, 15th June

🔗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 (which is me for now) 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:

Community representatives	Funder representatives	Foundation representatives
4 Individual Members	4 Platinum Members	3 Guardians
3 Ecosystem Members	3 Gold Members	2 Spec Core Team Members
2 Associate Members	2 Silver Members	Managing Director

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

As mentioned above, we will be seating candidates for both in-cycle (Guardians, Spec Core Team, Platinum members and Ecosystem members) and out of cycle constituency groups in 2026, as a couple of constituencies have empty seats, namely Individual members, Silver members and Associate members.

The members elected in cycle this year will be sitting for the normal 2-year term, but those elected out of cycle will see their seats be put up for re-election next year when the cycle repeats for their constituency.

In short, the seats up for election this year are as follows:

Constituency	In or out of cycle	Seats for election in 2026	Term for the elected member	Notes
Guardians	In-cycle	3	2 years
SCT	In-cycle	2	2 years
Platinum	In-cycle	1	2 years	4 seats total.
Ecosystem	In-cycle	3	2 years
Individual	Out of cycle	1	1 year	1 GB member stepped down.
Silver	Out of cycle	2	1 year	2 GB members stepped down.
Associate	Out of cycle	1	1 year	Empty seat.
Gold	Out of cycle	tbc	1 year	3 seats total.

Some GB members have decided to step down, making their seat available for election out of cycle. The Associate constituency seat remained empty at the last election, but new members have joined since then.

The Platinum and Gold constituencies both have empty seats (respectively 3 and 2 empty seats) because we only have one Platinum and one Gold member. So anyone signing up as a Platinum or Gold member and nominating a representative for election before 15th May is guaranteed a seat on the Governing Board!

🔗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 within the same constituency.

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. Anyone who has signed up to be a member to one of the constituencies before 15th May is eligible to vote for it.

We will hold an election in each of the six 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 23rd May, please email us promptly. We cannot change our voter rolls after voting begins on 30th May!!

All of the candidates will be listed on our 2026 elections page starting 16th May.

🔗How to nominate

We will share a link to a nomination form and a template document on Friday, 1st May. 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].

🔗What profiles are good for the Governing Board

One feedback we got in the last election was that it wasn't clear what sort of profiles would be most appropriate for Governing Board members, and people telling us “I can’t apply, I am not technical”.

To be clear, the Governing Board supports the Foundation across many different disciplines and the more diversity in the GB the better. As per the paragraph below, GB members have a choice of different Committees and WGs to be involved in, with many others that can be created and with different roles within these.

Here are the type of topics you may be able to contribute to:

• Website implementation (writing, technical implementation, design, deployment…)
• Conference organisation (project management, procurement, sponsor finding, volunteer management, tooling deployment…)
• Governance (ecosystem support: how to support projects and users, how to grow the ecosystem, GB/WG/Foundation relations, public directory curation, certification…)
• Tooling (for Trust & Safety, for the Foundation…)
• Business (support the Foundation’s (lack of) independent finance function, fundraising, legal & policy, commercial to bring new members, sponsors…)
• Documentation
• …

In short any profile will be welcome, because there is so much that can be done and to get different view points in the discussions. Commitment and availability are the only requirements, and ideally you’re excited by an existing initiative or looking to bring a new one to fruition.

🔗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.
• 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: campaigning rooms will be available for each constituency.
• The period for campaigning runs from 16th May to 29th May. Please note our community Code of Conduct while campaigning.

🔗Expectations: what to consider before accepting a nomination

You can familiarise yourself with the Terms of Reference, Bylaws, expectations and other processes on the Governing Board page of the website.

Besides, as mentioned above, the Governing Board exists to support the project. The role of the Governing Board is to offer guidance and support to the Guardians, Foundation staff, and Spec Core Team: this can only be achieved if Governing Board members are actively involved.

A seat on the Governing Board of the Foundation is not an overseeing one, and there are some expectations: we have tried to spell them out below, so please consider whether you are ready to fulfill them before signing up for a nomination.

All in all, we expect a GB member to spend a few hours a week on average in Governing Board activities, including Committee and WG involvement.

🔗1. Governing Board meetings

The Governing Board meets as a full board 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.

🔗2. Committees

The Committees of the Governing Board are subgroups focusing on specific areas of interest to The Matrix Foundation. They are the primary working units of the Board and consist exclusively of Board members.

An important function of Committees is to host Working Groups which enable broader community participation in the Foundation.

We expect Governing Board members to join and be active in at least one Committee.

🔗3. Working Groups

The Working Groups are a collection of groups that are formed to work on specific tasks or projects that are important to the Matrix ecosystem. The Working Groups are made up of members from the Matrix ecosystem and anyone can participate in them. They are overseen by the Governing Board in that they are attached to a given Committee and require at least one sponsor from the Governing Board to exist.

We expect Governing Board members to join and be active in at least one Working Group.

🔗4. Ongoing discussions

With everything going on in the ecosystem and our attempt to continuously improve, there are always ongoing discussions within the Governing Board. We expect every GB member to join our Discourse and participate in these discussions, in particular to relay potential inputs from their constituency.

🔗What to expect if you win the election

Congratulations! All of the winners will be announced on 15th June, but since the elections conclude on 12th June, you may get an email with the results of the election you participated in before 15th June.

All elected representatives will be added to a private mailing list, Discourse forum, shared calendar and of course 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.

We are looking forward to seeing who will be stepping up for nomination and welcoming new Governing Board members!

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

Amandine