We have now concluded LT elections for 2020 and it helps to reflect on the process and outcome.
First, we have coalesced into a community with a list of members, and it is an exciting scope.
- The IAHR Ecohydraulics TC has a total of 1341 members, all eligible to vote.
- The voting list consists of 591 IAHR members and 750 non IAHR members.
- The election message was sent to ALL members, not only IAHR members.
Second, out of the total eligible voters, he had 249 votes submitted. If you think about it, that is almost the size of an entire ISE conference attendance. In the past when we held elections at ISE meetings during an evening business meeting, we might get 50-100 votes, so I think the online election process significantly increased global participation. On the other hand, a lot of people did not vote. I think that is ok. People may not want that level of engagement. I think we now have some information we can use to gage our progress as a community.
Third, we ended up electing 3 more women to the LT, including the new vice chair. That is terrific. I think a lesson for next time is to be proactive to nominate women from every region to be included as candidates in every choice people vote on.
Fourth, we improved the balance of our geographic representation. An important lesson for next time is that we need to be proactive to solicit candidates from South America and Africa, because we currently do not have LT members from those regions. I think this is something we can improve.
Fifth, a small issue came up in which some IAHR members would have liked to vote, but they were not designated members of the ecohydraulics technical committee. IAHR member can alter their TC designations any time, but I think it should not be permitted to do so during an active election. Once the polls open, the voting membership should be locked until polls close. We want people who identify with ecohydraulics to be engaged, but need to have a fair process that avoids IAHR members from switching TC designations all the time just to impact votes. I will discuss this with IAHR.
Finally, I think we got a terrific set of candidates and I’m looking forward to working regularly with the new LT members to set an agenda and carry out some actions in the next two years.
If anyone has any thoughts on the election, please email me.
-Greg
