At the 2011 Constitutional Convention, the partners passed a ballot proposal to establish a new governance structure, composed of a 12-member Board of Governors, including 6 elected and 6 appointed members, and an Executive Committee. The Board was established in April 2012. Information about the elections process, and the results, are below.
General Information
Timeline
- Nominations may be submitted for a three week period between January 4 - 25, 2012.
- The Elections Committee will collect statements of interest from nominees, all due before January 31, 2012.
- The HathiTrust membership community will review candidates between February 1st and 29th.
- Elections will open on March 1, 2012 and close on March 15, 2012.
- Results will be announced March 30, 2012.
- New Board of Governors begins its work on April 16, 2012.
Election Committee
Following the Constitutional Convention of 2011, the current Executive Committee appointed an Election Committee to oversee the Board of Governors election process, to be complete in mid-April, 2012. The ballot proposal establishing the new governance structure is available from the Constitutional Convention 2011 webpage. The charge for the Board of Governors is available at http://www.hathitrust.org/board_of_governors. The Elections Committee will determine the voting process, gather nominations, assemble the ballot of 12 candidates, and oversee voting. Their work will be reviewed within five years of January 31, 2012, by the Board of Governors. The Election Committee consists of the following persons:
- Paula Kaufman, Dean of Libraries and University Librarian, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- James Hilton, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, University of Virginia
- Edward Van Gemert, Deputy Director of Libraries, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Anne R. Kenney, University Librarian, Cornell University
Voting
Voting Allocations
Voting for candidates will follow the same model used at the Constitutional Convention. Votes are weighted by calculating the square root of the volumes contributed and dollars spent. Minimum vote weights will be rounded up to a value of one (1) so that no institution has a vote with a weight of less than one. More information about the selection of the voting model and accompanying tables can be found at the following locations: Weighted Voting Models for the HathiTrust Constitutional Convention; Voting Models Table.
Although persons from Founding Member institutions may not run for election, Founding Member institutions will be able to vote for at-large candidates. In the case of consortia, the consortium may choose to allocate the aggregate weighted vote in the consortium (e.g., dividing the votes in some manner among the member institutions).
Process
In the first weeks of January, the HathiTrust Elections Committee will extend a call for nominations. Nominations should be made with the permission and full knowledge of the nominee. See below for directions on how to submit a nomination.
Following the call for nominations, nominees will submit brief statements of interest to the Elections Committee The statements of interest should explain why they are interested in joining the Board of Governors and their relevant credentials.
After all statements have been gathered from nominees, the Elections Committee will review the nominees according to pre-determined criteria and select twelve persons for the ballot. HathiTrust members will have a chance to review candidates for several weeks prior to the opening of elections.
Nominations
Call for Nominations
In order to be selected to be part of the final ballot, nominees should have a record of significant administrative responsibility and have demonstrated leadership within the community. It is assumed that the new Board of Governors will be comprised primarily (though not necessarily exclusively) of university librarians and CIOs.
Nominations can be submitted by any individual, even those non-affiliated with HathiTrust, but only individuals who are employed by members of HathiTrust will be able to run for the Board of Governors.
Directions for Nominations
If you are nominating people other than yourself, please confirm that they have agreed to run if they're selected for the final ballot. Nominations should be sent to Angelina Zaytsev at azaytsev@umich.edu prior to January 24th, 2012. Nominations must include:
- Name, Library, Title, Phone, and E-mail of nominee
- Name, Library, Title, Phone, and E-mail of nominator
- A brief narrative statement describing the nominee's qualifications
Directions for Self-Nominations
If you are nominating yourself for a Board position, please notify the Elections Committee that you are interested in running by emailing Angelina Zaytsev at azaytsev@umich.edu prior to January 24th, 2012. Please provide your name, library, title, phone and email. You may also at this time choose to submit the information below.
Information to be submitted by nominees
As nominations are submitted, the Elections Committee will request the following additional information from nominees. Information should be submitted to Angelina Zaytsev at azaytsev@umich.edu by January 31st, 2012.
- CV of nominee
- Photo of nominee
- A narrative statement describing:
- Qualifications of nominee
- Experience in any or all of the following areas: fiduciary and management roles, strategic planning, vision-building, decision-making, conflict resolution, communication
- Interest in serving on the board
- One or two future issues that the Board should address & how the nominee would approach these issues
- The nominee’s perception of the Board of Governor’s role in leading and guiding the HathiTrust general body
Election Results
Members of the Board of Governors elected at-large from the participating institutions are:
- Betsy Wilson (University of Washington)
- Robert Wolven (Columbia University)
- Richard Clement (Utah State University)
- Patricia Steele (University of Maryland)
- Carol Mandel (New York University)
- Sarah Michalak (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill)
Members appointed by the founding institutions are:
- Paul Courant (University of Michigan)
- Carol Diedrichs (Ohio State University)
- Laine Farley (California Digital Library)
- Wendy Lougee (University of Minnesota)
- Brian Schottlaender (University of California, San Diego)
- Bradley Wheeler (Indiana University)