While I absolutely am so proud of the very committed new Directors who were elected in the latest election, I was definitely disappointed that a number of African, Asian, and Latin American candidates who looked equally great didn’t make the threshold to win seats.
@lorenanicole
In part, I see that as a drawback of the staggered terms. If 11 seats were contested in this last election, the result would have shown more regional diversity. Or at least, I think it is very likely so; of course there would have been some additional candidates since at least several existing members would have run presumably. With just a top 4 vote getters, it skews towards familiarity by existing community members.
I like the idea of regional slots for future elections. I feel strongly that any such regional identification should be a self-identification. Many people who were born in, or have deep ties to, Africa, Asia, and South America, go to school or work in Europe, Australia, and North America. But also, some people were born one place and move as children to a different place, and identities are complicated.
I also would like such regional slots to be more a nudge than a reserved position. For example, we might have a desire to have more Directors from the Global South, but I don’t think we should per se have a reserved position. Rather, I think that filling such a “boosted” position should be subject to a rule like “If a candidate from an underrepresented region gets at least 50% approval, a boosted position is filled before a general position.” Or maybe rather than raw approval rate, consider special slots from the top-10 vote getters, but allow that perhaps in this election no such Director is sufficiently highly approved.
Obviously, as well, boosting regional representation should be subject to the current makeup. If we reach a point where North America and Europe are no longer over-represented, the boosting procedure should be suspended for the election.
@tiran This is brilliant! Setting a maximum on regions is really much more elegant than my idea of “boosting” votes towards regional balance.