The election closed on October 28 at 5 pm MT. Thank you to everyone who voted in the board of directors election to fulfill the 10% quorum requirement. In total, 18% of members voted and the results are posted here. These 4 directors will take office January 1, 2020, and serve through the end of 2021.
2019 Election Results
- Jugdeep Aggarwal
- Steve Pearson
- Kimberly Phinney
- Sara Weaver
Congratulations to our new directors, and thank you to all the candidates that ran for the board! We'd also like to sincerely thank our outgoing directors for all their time and work on the board. We encourage anyone interested in working with USHPA to volunteer on committees and to run for the board again.
The full 2020 board will consist of the following directors, plus an additional 2 directors that will be appointed by the new board per the bylaws at their first meeting in January:
- Jugdeep Aggarwal
- Ken Andrews
- Alan Crouse
- Mark Forbes
- Kate Griffin
- Mike Holmes
- Doyle Johnson
- Daniel Lukaszewicz
- Steven Pearson
- Kimberly Phinney
- Randall Shane
- Paul Voight
- Sara Weaver
This was USHPA's first national election, and the first member election that used the diversity algorithm to determine the results. As the board decreases to 15 members in 2020 and 10 members in 2021, the algorithm seeks to ensure that directors continue to represent all regions and wing types, as well as a mix of ages and genders.
The aim of the diversity algorithm is to fill each of the following categories out of the national election: at least 1 director from each region, at least 3 of each wing type (hang gliding or paragliding), at least 3 under age 40 and 3 age 40 or older, and at least 2 women and 2 men. The categories are filled based on the number of votes received by each candidate, meaning that the results are determined purely by the algorithm and cannot be altered.
This table shows an overview of the diversity selection process (download the table here). Please see below for a more detailed walk-through.
Diversity Selection Process
The algorithm first looks at the sitting board to determine which categories are lacking. As USHPA is still operating with a transitional board that was put in place after the passage of the governance proposal earlier this year, the sitting board currently consists of "carryover" directors--those whose regions did not vote for the governance proposal--and "continuing officers," who are completing their terms on the board. For more information, please see the transitional board election page. For this election, we needed 1 director from Region 2, 2 more directors under age 40, and 1 more female director to meet our diversity goals.
Candidates were ranked by the number of votes they received and then the diversity algorithm was applied. All candidates who received a vote from at least 5% of voters (in this election, 80 votes) were eligible to be considered in the diversity selection process. In this election, all candidates received the minimum number except Luis Ameglio, who as a result did not move forward.
For the first priority, region, we needed 1 director from Region 2:
The candidate from Region 2 with the highest number of votes was Jugdeep Aggarwal, making him the first new director. With him on board, all 5 regions are represented.
Because our wing type goal was already filled by the sitting board, we moved on to our final priorities, age and gender. These two goals are weighted equally, so the category that’s further from its goal number is prioritized. In this case we needed 2 more directors in the age category and just 1 more in the gender category, so age became the first criteria.
Sara Weaver had the highest number of votes of the candidates under age 40, so she became the second new director. Since she is female, the gender goal was also met. We just need one more Y to meet our goal of 2 more young directors:
The candidate under age 40 with the next-highest number of votes, Kimberly Phinney, became the third new director.
Since all the diversity goals have been met, the final seat went to the candidate with the most overall votes, Steven Pearson.
Here are the final election results:
If you have any questions regarding the election process or diversity matrix, please contact [email protected].
Mark G. Forbes
USHPA Elections Committee chair
[email protected]