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2004 USENIX Nominating Committee
Dan Geer (Chair), Consultant
Clem Cole, Ammasso
Andrew Hume, AT&T Labs—Research
Aviel D. Rubin, Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute

It is time for you to think about the next round of elections for the Board of Directors and for Officers of USENIX.

USENIX has eight board members: four are officers (President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary) and four are board members at large. All stand for election every two years.

Organizations like USENIX have a difficult trade-off: Renewing their leadership by officially recognizing the candidates most likely to build the organization versus the free-for-all. The risk of the former is self-perpetuation of the officers more than the organization; the risk of the latter is election due to name recognition rather than skill, thus leading to irretrievable mistakes born of inexperience. In the case of the problem of self-perpetuation, the solution is term limits, and USENIX indeed has them. In the case of the problem of getting well known but inappropriate candidates, the solution is a Nominating Committee, and USENIX indeed has one of those. None of this is magic—democracy is messy, after all.

Having the right leaders for their time is hard to predict, but you have to try. More than anything else, it is short-term essential that there are enough good candidates to choose amongst: some new and some familiar, spread over all of USENIX's sub-specialties, a history of both devotion and delivery to the organization, and the room to maneuver their private life to make USENIX a priority. At the same time, it is long-term essential that the best potential officers be gotten onto the Board, so that the next set of Officers can be chosen from those with prior experience at the Board level. In other words, some new Board members every two years is a good thing, along with a convincing set of Officers known for their prior accomplishment to be ready to take leadership roles.

The Nominating Committee Chair is appointed by the sitting Board. I am that Chair this time around. The Nominating Committee must be both knowledgeable and wise, and must be willing to forego office themselves. That Committee, chosen by me, will make recommendations both for Board members at large and for Officers. We will do our best and we will very much hope you follow our advice, as by the time we are done we will believe in our decisions.

If you are considering offering yourself for election by petition, please keep in mind that the Board of USENIX is real work, never trivial, and a great place to make a difference. You should have pluck, vision, the ability to work with others, and a thorough sense of some topic area that USENIX covers. You should be goal- rather than process-oriented, have a sense of humor, and be fond of the idea that you get more accomplished if you don't care who gets the credit.

Send suggestions for nominees, comments on existing Board members, or just plain questions to me: geer@usenix.org. Speaking as a former Board member and Officer, I can tell you that being on the Board of USENIX is absolutely, positively worth the effort.

Dan Geer, Chair, Nominating Committee