Handicapping the CIRA Election: Part II, the results

Last week, I laid out my bets for the CIRA Board of Directors election. To recap, I predicted that the following candidates would be elected;

• Kerry Brown
• Eric Boehm
• Bill St. Arnaud
• Kevin McArthur

So how did I do? Well, the results are in and my predictions were half right. Kerry and Bill were both elected, but Eric and Kevin lost to Susan Mehinagic and Andrew Escobar.

Susan’s win was a surprise to me – not because she isn’t a worthy director, but because she came out of nowhere. This happens fairly regularly with the Nominating Committee candidates because of their recruiting and selection practices. All in, I’m pretty happy that I managed to pick two of the three successful candidates.

Not so on the members side. It was a really tough pick this year. I really thought that Frank Michlick and Kevin McArthur would do a lot better as a result of the support of their respective constituencies. I really thought the battle would go either way and that Rob Villeneuve or Marita Moll might come up the middle. I was right about Rob given his strong showing but I underestimated the degree to which Marita and Kevin would split the progressive vote while at the same time slightly over-estimating how many ballots Kevin would gain from the support he had from OpenMedia, etc. I also completely blew it when it came to Andrew Escobar, forgetting the fact that he only lost the 2010 election for the member seat by 4 ballots. Not sure if I would have called the results differently, but I would have at least mentioned him in my first post.

In any event, I think all the candidates did a great job, and I really appreciate everyone investing so strongly in this important process. And of course, my best wishes to all of the successful candidates.

The results broke down like this;

Nomination Committee Slate

• Brown, Kerry 433 Elected *
• St.Arnaud, Bill 352 Elected *
• Mehinagic, Susan 312 Elected *
• Gibson, Bill 294
• Boehm, Eric 254
• Evans, Gary 228
• Vidal, François 210

Members’ Slate

• Escobar, Andrew 215 Elected *
• McArthur, Kevin 154
• Villeneuve, Rob 112
• Moll, Marita 111
• Walton, Catherine 97
• Williams, Tom 95
• Michlick, Frank 62
• Makuch, Greg 51
• Aguiar, Reinaldo 43

The CIRA Board: Election results & Board diversity

The results from the CIRA Board of Directors election are in and I am officially no longer a member of its Board of Directors, having chosen not to stand for a 4th term. Congratulations to all of the successful candidates, and my thanks* to everyone that invested their time and effort running for this important position.

Here’s a look at the new board.

• Paul Andersen, (ON) (exp. 2013)
• Rick Anderson, (AB**)  (exp. 2013)
• Kerry Brown, (BC) (exp. 2014)
• John Demco (ex-officio)
• Heather Dryden (ex-officio)
• Andrew Escobar, (ON) (exp. 2014)
• Jim Grey, (BC) (exp. 2012)
• Byron Holland (ex-officio)
• John King, Nfld (exp. 2012)
• Rowena Liang (BC) (exp. 2013)
• Louise Macdonald (PQ) (exp. 2013)
• Susan Mehinagic (BC) (exp. 2014)
• Barry Shell (BC) (exp. 2012)
• Bill St. Arnaud (ON) (exp. 2014)
• Victoria Withers (BC) (exp. 2012)

John Demco, Heather Dryden and Byron Holland are un-elected, ex-officio directors and live slightly outside the process that seats the rest of the directors. John holds his seat by virtue of his role as founder of the .CA registry, Heather is a representative of Industry Canada and Byron Holland is CIRA’s CEO.

From that list, here are some basic stats concerning board diversity. I excluded the ex-officio directors from the counts, because they are essentially appointed and generally remain unchanged and I show the province of residence of the director at the time they were elected.

• 4 women, 8 men
• 3 from Ontario, 6 from British Columbia, 1 from Newfoundland, 1 from Alberta**, 1 from Quebec.
• Leaving the board are 1 director from Ontario, 1 from Manitoba and 1 from B.C – 2 were men, 1 woman.
• 3 4 directors terms expire in 2012, 4 expire in 2013 and 4 in 2014.
• 2 directors have served for more than two terms, 2 directors are entering or in their 2nd term, 8 directors are in or entering their first term (3 having been just elected)

I’d be really interested to hear whether or not the composition of the Board meets your expectations for the organization. Does the balance look right? What about the mix of skills? As the steward of an important public asset, I think we *should* have an opinion on such things – please weigh in with your thoughts!

*Some people might find it weird that I’d personally thank candidates in this way – it is important to me that Canada’s Internet community maintain a strong influence over this organization. The two most obvious ways for them to achieve that are to a) run for the board and b) vote in the elections. As a result, I always like to thank everyone who puts themselves out in front of the election and endures the ups and downs of the election process. I only really thank the voters when they are voting for me

**Rick Anderson has relocated from Alberta to Ontario since his election, lessening regional involvement outside of Ontario and British Columbia.

Updated 10/4/2011 to correct John King’s term. He was elected in 2010 for a two year term to replace Margaret Gilmour who was elected, but not seated in 2009.