By Oluwakorede Asuni
 
The South Africa chapter of the IIBA® (IIBA SA), is led by a board of executive officers headed by a president. This board oversees the smooth running of the chapter and are accountable to both the members of the chapter – who elected them – and to the IIBA itself – which has a set of good practices each chapter must abide by in order to retain its status as a chapter of the organisation.
 
To conduct the business of the IIBA SA chapter within the framework of the law in South Africa, a non-profit legal entity was formed as a section 21 tax exempt company. This non-profit entity has three directors, usually the president, the secretary and the treasurer, as mandated by the bylaws.  Directors of the non-profit company are decided after each election and all necessary regulatory institutions are notified as appropriate.
 
Board elections are an annual event for the chapter. Vacancies are advertised and members of the community can nominate and vote for new representatives to the board. The IIBA SA elections are a strict waterfall affair, as follows:
 

1. Vacancies are determined – the number of vacant board seats are determined in a meeting of the IIBA SA board. Vacancies may arise as a result of board members reaching the end of a two-year term or as a result of resignations – i.e. board members who are yet to complete a term of two-years, elect to exit the board. And, sometimes the board determines that there is a need for a set of extra-hands, and it creates a (set of) new portfolios which needs to be manned by a new executive officer;
2. Election officer appointed – logically, for elections to be free and fair, it is important that an independent adjudicator be appointed. This is also mandated by the IIBA SA chapter by laws. The role of the election officer is to oversee the election process from the time immediately after vacancies have been determined to when the new board is announced at the AGM.  The election officer will be independent and will act according to the rules of election in the bylaws.
3. Vacancies are advertised and nominations requested – for a period ranging from 1 to 4 weeks, the election officer announces the vacancies and accepts nominations from members of the IIBA SA chapter. At the close of this period a voting exercise is embarked upon if required. If the number of nominations received matches the number of vacant positions, voting will not take place, and nominees are deemed duly elected.  This has been the case for the last two years but is likely to change this year as the current board embarked on a serious marketing effort to drive members’ interest in the board and there is a strong likelihood that the elections this year will include a voting exercise.
4. Votes are collected and counted – When there are more nominations than the number of vacant seats, a voting exercise which is supervised by the election officer, is embarked upon and members of the IIBA SA chapter will have an opportunity to decide whom amongst all the nominees should represent them on the board of the IIBA SA.
5. Results of elections are presented to the board and to all members at the AGM  - the president and the election officer will present the newly elected officers to the members at the AGM. And the new board is constituted at the AGM and authorised to commence the management of the affairs of the IIBA SA Chapter immediately.

 Usually, the first order of the new board is the allocation of officers to portfolios.