Matrix logo

Governing Board Elections 2024

Election announcements are made on our blog, our social channels, as well as in the Office of the Matrix.org Foundation room and the Matrix News room.

You will find all the information about nominees posted in the nominees section below within 24 hours after the nomination period closes at end of day April 26.

What is the Governing Board

The Governing Board is an advisory board that is made up of elected representatives from all across the Matrix ecosystem.

We encourage you to read our membership page and announcements (from December and from April) for a full background on the Governing Board.

There are nine different constituency groups that are allocated seats on the Governing Board, across three categories:

Schedule

Announcement (April 15)

We announced last December that we were adding a new organ, the Governing Board, to the Foundation's governance. This April, we kickstarted the Elections the election process in a blog post announcing the schedule, eligibility, and conditions of the vote.

Nominations (April 20)

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, 2023, on any of Donorbox, Patreon, or Liberapay, then you are eligible to nominate and vote.

Eligible members can proceed to nominations using the Cryptpad below, or download this PDF nomination form and send it to elections@foundation.matrix.org.

All nominations are subject to review in accordance with our bylaws. We will email you to confirm receipt within 2 business days, and we will publish our elections landing page with all of the nominees, and other details, on April 27th.

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

Online Nomination Form

Campaigning (April 27)

The campaign period is an opportunity for candidates to share more about themselves and their priorities. We encourage candidates to engage with the rest of the ecosystem, and in particular those who are part of the same constituency group.

Voting (May 18)

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 in May.

We will hold an election for every constituency even if a given constituency has fewer candidates than there are seats allocated for them on the Governing Board. This is, effectively, as 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 10th, please email us promptly. We cannot change our voter rolls after voting begins on May 17th!

All of the candidates will be listed on an elections page here on our website which we’ll publish on April 29th.

Results (June 3)

All of the winners will be announced on June 3rd, but since the elections conclude on May 31st, you may get an email with the results of the election you participated in before June 3rd.

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 our first Governing Board meeting. Given the size of the board and the international nature of our ecosystem, those one-on-one meetings will likely happen over the course of a couple months.

The Governing Board will meet as a full board twice a year, for at least 90 minutes each time, and our first 1-2 meetings will have a professional facilitator to help us collectively put our best foot forward. 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 (soon to be announced) annual 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.

We intend to charter committees – such as for finance, which would review our annual budget in detail – who will meet in between Governing Board meetings and present their assessments and recommendations to the Governing Board. These committees are where the bulk of the activity will take place since the board, which may have up to 24 members, is quite large.

Nominees

Stay tuned! We'll post the nominees after the nomination period closes. We'll announce the update on our social channels as well as in the Office of the Matrix.org Foundation room and the Matrix News room.