1. Number of Board Members / Replacement / Roles
a) The Board shall have a maximum number of 7 members.
b) If an elected board member leaves the board (due to resignation, having to step down or other reasons), the board has two options to choose from: either that the remaining board members vote on a new member among the three non-elected
candidates who received the most votes at the previous election, or that a special election is held for the open seat. In case of a special election, new candidates can apply and the voters (see no. 3) would fill the vacant seat.
c) In its first meeting, the new Board will decide if they want to elect a chairman, secretary, and treasurer from among the Board members and/or want to create other specific roles (teams and team leaders etc…). The chairman would have
mostly an outside representative function and be first among equals. The secretary would be responsible for keeping minutes of the Board’s meetings and the publishing of announcements, Board decisions and other important information.
The treasurer would be responsible for managing the financial side of the organization.
2. Term
For the board elected in 2024, the term will start on 1st April 2024 and end on 31st March 2026.
3. Who Can Vote
a) Voters need to be IAM members, at least 15 years old at the last day of the voting period and be an “active member” of the memory community.
“Active member”:
aa) those recognized as an athlete, arbiter, tournament organizer, volunteer or contributor at the time of the last election in 2020: due to much fewer options for active participation in live events since 2020 because of COVID, “active member” status from the 2020 elections cannot expire between 2020 and 2024 and will remain active also for the 2024 election, or
bb) those who were not yet active members in 2020, but have become active members since 2020 via the same means (athlete, arbiter, tournament organizer, volunteer or contributor).
This applies to memory tournaments in the Traditional Format (7 or 10 event tournaments) and in the Modern Format (Memory League – live and online, see the ML World Tour).
b) Voters will get a voter ID by the election committee and will be put on the voter roll. The voter roll will remain confidential for data protection reasons. The election committee will send a confirmation email to all members at least two days before
voting starts, and will announce on Facebook, the IAM homepage and via IAM Newsletter that this confirmation email has been sent, so that anyone who has not received this email and wishes to vote can ensure they are registered before the
voting period starts.
4. Who Can Be Elected
a) Candidates need to be IAM members, at least 20 years old at the start of the board mandate and be an “active member” of the memory community, see no. 3.a).
b) Candidates need to agree to a pledge before the election that they will, if elected, uphold exclusively IAM’s goals in their new office, free of any conflicts of interest. Also that they will pledge to have a fair campaign and treat their fellow candidates respectfully. The election committee shall monitor the campaigning process and take into account the candidates’ right to campaign freely and to use their freedom of speech.
c) Any member of a board or acting in another official function at any memory organization which is not part of IAM cannot be a candidate if such a membership creates a conflict of interest. A conflict of interest exists if the other organization itself or an organization it is part of has taken hostile action against IAM in the past or if it has taken continued actions that are a hindrance to the goals of IAM, for example by making it more difficult for IAM to grow on a global scale by increasing its number of national associations.
d) Independent of the above under no. 4.c), a conflict of interest preventing a candidacy also exists in each case where someone is a member of a board or acting in another official function at any non-IAM memory organization which aims to be active in the classical memory disciplines on a global scale. Any elected Board member later to pursue such a position as mentioned in no. 4.c) or 4.d) has to step down.
e) The period for announcing candidacy will be 2 weeks starting from a date to be determined by the election committee. Candidates can announce their candidacies with a mail to the election committee. They are free to communicate their candidacies after that to the public also before the 2 week period has run out.
f) Immediately after the announcement period mentioned in no. 4.e), the campaigning period will start. There will be a minimum of 2 weeks in which the candidates will have the chance to introduce themselves to the memory community, for example with a post in the IAM Facebook group where group members would have the opportunity to ask them questions.
5. The Vote
a) Immediately after the campaigning period mentioned in no. 4.f), the actual voting period will start. It will take 7 days to ensure that everyone has a chance to cast their vote.
Voters will have 3 votes. A vote can only be in favor of a candidate: there are no options to vote “abstain” or “no”. Voting is possible for any candidate, without regional restrictions. A voter cannot award more than one vote to the same candidate.
The candidates with the most votes are elected. If two or more candidates receive an equal number of votes, a special election is held between them. No more than 3 board members can hail from the same continental region. The regions are America, Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Europe.
b) Registered voters vote in the way chosen by the independent election committee (no current Board member or candidate can be part of that committee). The way of voting, for example via a voting website, needs to ensure secret, secure, and efficient elections.
c) After the voting period has finished, the election committee shall tally all votes cast by the end of the voting deadline.
d) After the votes have been tallied, the 7 candidates with the most votes will be elected to the Board unless no. 5.a) applies (no more than 3 candidates from the same region). If there are more than 3 candidates from the same region among the top 7 candidates, the fourth candidate onward from the same region will be skipped until there are 7 elected Board members. If at the end of that process the application of the regional limit rule would lead to vacant seats, then the seats shall not remain vacant but shall be filled with the candidates with the next-most votes, with no regional limitation.
e) After the 7 candidates with the most votes have been determined according to the election rules, the election committee will announce the election results, including the number of votes each candidate has received. The individual voting results (how each particular voter has voted) are not published and shall remain permanently confidential.