arXiv Member Advisory Board: Election Information for Contributing Organizations

Member Advisory Board

Cornell University Library (CUL) holds the overall administrative and financial responsibility for arXiv's operation and development, with guidance from its Member Advisory Board (MAB) and its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). The arXiv Governance Model chart summarizes each group's responsibility. The organizational, financial, editorial, and governance model for arXiv is described in the arXiv Membership Program FAQ. The MAB bylaws detail the goals, composition, operation, and election of the Board. The Bylaws were developed with advice from the Interim Member Advisory Board. We are grateful for the interim Board's assistance and guidance.

MAB represents participating institutions’ interests and advises CUL on issues related to repository management and development, standards implementation, interoperability, development priorities, business planning, and outreach and advocacy. Representation on MAB is reserved for libraries, research institutions, laboratories, and foundations that are members of arXiv and that contribute to the financial support of the service.

Composition of the Member Advisory Board

Based on its bylaws, the MAB will have eighteen members:

• Contributing Organizations: Eight voting members from 72 Contributing Organizations to be elected through an election process.

• High-Contributing Organizations: Four voting members representing each consortia or national organization member that contributes 5% or more of arXiv’s annual income. The MAB Bylaws specify up to five voting members from this category and currently there are four eligible groups (representing 61 organizations), including:
  • Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), US
  • Consortium arXiv-DH and HGF: Coordinated by the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB) and Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Germany
  • Jisc, UK
  • University of California, US

• Simons Foundation: One voting member from the Simons Foundation.

• Ex Officio Members: MAB will have five non-voting ex officio members including the arXiv Program Director (MAB Chair), arXiv IT manager, and arXiv User Support manager, all from Cornell University Library, and two Scientific Board representatives.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The purpose of the current election process is to elect eight members for the Contributing Organizations category.  The nomination and voting processes are open only to the Contributing Organizations.The MAB Bylaws specify up to five voting members from the High-Contributing Organizations category. As of October, 2012, there are only four eligible consortia for this group. Therefore, there will not be an election process for the High Contributing Organization seats as each eligible High Contributing Organization will be invited to appoint a representative to the Board. Please see the list of
High-Contributing and Contributing Organizations.

Election Timeline

• Nominations may be submitted October 15-November 9, 2012
• Election will take place November 27-December 17, 2012
• Results will be announced by the second week of January, 2013
• New Member Advisory Board will begin its work in February, 2013

Information About Nominations

Please complete the Nomination Form by November 9, 2012.

• Members will be elected from the candidates recommended by the Contributing Organizations. No contributing organization may be represented by more than one candidate for election to the Board.
• Each nominated candidate must be an employee or officer of the arXiv member organization that makes the nomination. Please confirm that your nominee has agreed to be included in the election ballot.
• Elected members of MAB will serve staggered four-year terms (six four-year and six two-year appointments, the term decision to be made after the elections).
• There will be an Annual Meeting of the Board (ideally full-day and in-person) supplemented with regular update conference calls as required (maximum two hour in duration).
• For board members who need assistance with their travel expenses to attend the in-person meetings, Cornell will provide $1,000 per person for the U.S. participants and $1,500 for the oversees participants.

Voting Process

The Elections Committee will prepare a ballot using the candidate information provided by the nominating Contributing Organizations. The information about the online ballot will be shared with the Contributing Organizations during the third week of November and the voting process will take place November 27-December 17, 2012.

• Voting for representatives to MAB is open to all eligible Contributing Institutions, each of which shall have one vote.
• Each voting member of MAB will be an employee or officer of a Contributing Organization.

Election Committee

The Elections Committee determines the voting process, gathers nominations, reviews the candidates proposed by the member institutions, and oversees voting. The Election Committee for the first MAB election is subgroup of the Interim Member Advisory Board:

• Miriam Blake, Research Library Director, Los Alamos National Laboratory, US
• Catriona Cannon, Associate Director, Collection Support, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, UK
• Diane Geraci, Associate Director for Information Resources, MIT Libraries, US
• Esther Tobschall, Project arXiv-DH, German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB), Germany
• Oya Y. Rieger, Associate University Librarian and arXiv Program Director, Cornell University Library, US

Please send your questions and comments to rieger@cornell.edu