Nominations are now open for elections to the Board of the UK Backgammon Federation for the two year term 2020-21. If you wish to stand in this election, please send an email indicating so to contact@ukbgf.com, along with a photograph of yourself taken within the last 2 years, and a statement (maximum of 250 words) in support of your candidacy, before 23.59 on 8th September 2020; that is, the day before the AGM. Nominations received after that time will not be accepted. You can find examples of past statements here. If you would like to know more about what being on the Board entails, please feel welcome to ask any of the existing members.

We will be electing up to nine Board members this time; as the UKBGF has grown, so has the workload and we are keen to make sure we are not over-reliant on a small number of people. We will also adopt a similar regional format as last time to ensure that the Board has a geographical spread that reflects the distribution of members; there will be two places guaranteed for Board members in each of three regions (London/SE, Midlands/Wales/West and North/Scotland/Northern Ireland)

You will be able to vote for candidates regardless of where they are based on a points-based system – that is, 9 points for your first preference, 8 for your second and so on down to 1. The two candidates with the highest totals from each region, and the next highest three, will be elected. (If fewer than two stand in any region, the unfilled places will revert to the “next-highest” pool)

To be eligible to stand for the Board, you must be a member of the UKBGF as of today (11/8/2020).

The timetable for the election is:

• 8th Sept, 23.59: nominations close. Candidates and statements will be announced as soon as possible afterwards. If there are 9 or fewer candidates, no election will be needed and this will be confirmed at the AGM. Otherwise:
• 15th Sept: Voting begins. Instructions will be sent out to all members about how to vote.
• 4th Oct, 23.59: Voting closes. An independent scrutineer will be appointed to oversee the process.
• 18th Oct: Results announced.

The current Board will then arrange one or more handover meetings with the new Board, so that they are ready to take over at the start of 2021.

Meetings: While the current Board met every two months in London up to the beginning of lockdown, we have been using Zoom roughly monthly since that time and, having worked well up to now, it is anticipated that this will become a permanent arrangement rather than asking Board members to travel. We want to encourage anyone to be able to stand and will be as accommodating as possible.