Overview
The OMG conducts an election every December to fill half of the AB seats. In addition, by-elections may be held from time to time to fill any vacant seats. When there is a current by-election in progress, details are given below.
AB Nominations
Candidates for AB Seats must submit the following to OMG Headquarters:
- An AB Election Nomination Form signed by at least ten OMG SDO members in good standing (Domain or Contributing for a DTC Seat and Platform or Contributing for a PTC Seat.) To get elected, the candidate has to be well known to the voters (either in person or by reputation). Canvassing helps, but ultimately people vote for someone they respect personally.
- A letter from the candidate's employer committing at the maximum 25% of the candidate's time to AB activity. If elected, the candidate must attend almost all the OMG SDO meetings for the duration of the term. Skipping more than the odd one activates a clause in the P&P that leads to the AB member being "retired" (sic). A template suggesting the form that this letter might take is available here.
AB By-election: 2025 Q1
Nominations were opened on 6 December 2024 for a by-election to fill one Domain seat and 2 Platform seats.
Following this year's Architecture Board election, a further Domain seat has become vacant due to the previous incumbent retiring. This is in addition to the 2 Platform seats that have been vacant for some time, and which now fall vacant for a further full 2 year period.
We therefore have 1 Domain seat and 2 Platform seats vacant until December 2026.
In the event that more than 1 nominations is received for the Domain seat, or more than 2 nominations for the 2 Platform seats, an elections timetable will be kicked off according to the dates below.
The nomination deadline is Thursday 13 February 2025 at 23:59 UTC.
This OMG Architecture Board by-election voting process if needed will take place during the Reston TC meeting in March 2025.
Successful candidate(s) for the by-election will be assigned the remainder of the vacated seat's term, expiring December 2026 in each case.
- Domain TC Seat
- Domain 2: Vacant from after the 2024Q4 meeting, until Dec 2026
- Platform TC Seats
- Platform 4: until Dec 2026
- Platform 5: until Dec 2026
Election Timetable:
| date | schedule |
|---|---|
| Friday 6 Dec | Nominations open |
Thu 13 Feb at 2359 UTC | Nominations close The written sponsorship of the candidate's employer must arrive at OMG by the nomination deadline. |
Thu 27 Feb | Announcement of candidate list |
On closure of nominations, if the number of candidates is equal to or less than the number of balloted seats, then all candidates will be assigned their seats by acclamation.
If there are more nominees than seats, voting will commence as scheduled below.
| date | schedule |
|---|---|
| Thu 6 March | Email and online voting opens |
Mon 17 March | 2025Q1 TC meeting begins in Reston; In Person voting opens. Ballots are available at the OMG Registration Desk during their hours |
Thu 20 March | Voting by email or website closes at 16:00 Local time (EST; 21:00 UTC) |
Thu 20 March | Voting in person closes when the Thursday Architecture Board meeting recesses |
Thu 20 March | Votes will be tallied and the result announced during the evening by email The tally is done in accordance with the Single Transferable Vote procedure outlined in document: https://doc.omg.org/pp/96-04-03 |
If returned by acclamation, successful candidates will take their seats on Friday 14 February right after Nominations close. If returned by election, successful candidates will take their seats immediately after the 2025Q1 TC meeting ends.
Nominations
The requirements for nomination are set out in section 3.1.3 of the current Policies and Procedures (https://doc.omg.org/pp/ ); this section is appended below. It permits an individual affiliated with a Contributing, Domain or Platform Member to stand. The ten nominating signatures for the PTC-elected seats may come from representatives of either Contributing or Platform Members, and for the DTC-elected seats, from representatives of either Contributing or Domain Members.
Nomination signatures may be collected in two ways:
- In person. Use the form available at https://doc.omg.org/ab-nomination-formThis meeting in Reston is a good opportunity to do this.
- Via the online nomination form at https://www.omg.org/members/ab-nomination-form.htm
Collected in-person signatures may be scanned and sent to the Returning Officer at OMG HQ, by email.
A representative may nominate more than one candidate. If the candidate is standing in both polls the nomination must indicate whether it is for the DTC or PTC seat, or both.
The written sponsorship of the nominee's employer must also arrive at OMG by the nomination deadline. Nominees will have the opportunity to use web page space provided by OMG to outline their positions and qualifications. A template for the employer sponsorship letter can be found at: https://doc.omg.org/ab-nomination-letter
OMG Policies and Procedures Extract
OMG Policies & Procedures V3.5 – pp/2022-09-03
3.1.3 Composition of the Architecture Board
The Architecture Board comprises the Architecture Board Chair and ten members, each of whom is affiliated with an OMG Contributing, Domain or Platform Member. Five members are elected by the Platform Technology Committee, five by the Domain Technology Committee. Each of these ten seats comes due for re-election by the appropriate TC at 24 month intervals. AB members may not simultaneously chair any OMG Subgroup except an Architecture Board Subgroup, a Revision Task Force or a Finalisation Task Force.
[AB members are expected to participate in many of the parallel Subgroup meetings during an OMG Technical Meeting week, so it would not in general be feasible for them also to run Subgroups. However, RTFs & FTFs typically meet briefly, if at all, during technical meeting weeks, so there is little possibility of scheduling clashes, whilst preventing AB members running the Subgroups they themselves charter would be rather contradictory.]
AB seats are assigned to an individual, but only for as long as he or she remains affiliated with the same OMG Member; there may be no more than one AB member from any particular organisation, and Members may not send substitutes to AB meetings An AB member may relinquish that membership voluntarily, or automatically by non-attendance at two out of any three successive AB meetings. Upon loss to the AB of a member for any reason, a replacement must be chosen by election at the earliest reasonable opportunity.
[The non-attendance rule is to ensure continuing participation by AB members - with only 10 elected members of the AB, any non-participation by an AB member seriously compromises the group's capabilities.]
Election for Domain and Platform seats on the AB is by Single Transferable Vote of OMG Members eligible to vote in the appropriate Technology Committee. An election is initiated by the DTC or PTC Chair when one or more of the corresponding AB seats becomes vacant. Where an election for a seat takes place before the expiry of a 24 month term, the newly-elected AB member occupies that seat for at most the balance of that original term. Should a single election for several seats of different remaining terms take place in one TC, the STV vote transferring process will be used to fill the seats in order, longest term first.
[This "by-election" rule is to ensure that, as far as is possible, AB elections remain grouped together at one point in the year, so as not to distract attention from the AB's technical rôle.]
Nomination requires the signatures of 10 of the Voting Representatives of the appropriate TC and the written sponsorship of the Member to which nominee is affiliated, including a commitment of up to 25% of his or her working time to AB activities. The closing date for nominations for AB candidates shall be announced to the OMG membership at least thirty days beforehand by email. If, at the closing date, there are no more candidates than seats available, all the candidates are deemed elected unopposed, and no election is held. If there are both full- and partial-term seats in an unopposed election, but more candidates than full-term seats, lots will be drawn to determine which candidates are assigned the full-term seats.