Nominations are now closed for seats on the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District Board of Directors for this term.
Three open seats are for three-year terms, and one is for a one-year term.
All terms start at the end of the Annual Membership Meeting of August 17, 2022.
- When is the election?
- Why should I run?
- Who should run?
- Who can vote?
- How do we vote?
- How do we elect our President?
- How are the votes counted?
- How are the winners selected?
- What if I still have questions?
- Who is on the Board now?
What are the important dates for this election?
- Wednesday, June 15, 2022: Nominations for Directors open
- Friday, July 29, 2022: Nominations close at 5:00 pm Pacific Time
- Tuesday, August 9, 2022: Candidates Night Meeting, starting at 6:00 pm.
- Attend via Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88555860342 .
- Tuesday, August 9, 2022: Online voting opens at the end of that meeting Emails sent to all eligible voters with link to online ballot.
- Monday, August 15, 2022: Online voting closes at 5:00 pm Pacific Time.
- Wednesday, August 17, 2022: Annual Membership Meeting, at which results of the Elections are formally announced.
- August 2022 – August 2025: Term on the Board of Directors for each of the three winners.
Why Should I Run?
Being a Director of the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District means having a voice in the future of our South of Market neighborhood: helping it to thrive during current challenges and become the vibrant, safe, and uniquely kinky space we all love and enjoy.
Who Should Run?
We are reaching out to our entire queer and kink community to encourage individuals to nominate themselves.
In order to achieve diversity and representation on our Board, we are particularly encouraging the self-nomination of individuals who represent some of these communities and constituencies:
- Women
- Trans, Non-Binary, and Gender Nonconforming Folks
- People of Color
- Kinky Heterosexuals
- Young People
- Traditional and Non-Traditional Families
- Artists
- Businesses
You do not need to currently be a voting member of the LCD in order to nominate yourself for the Board. (You will need to become a voting member prior to the election; note that membership dues are easily waived at this time; see join.sflcd.org.)
Who can vote?
Only persons who became full Voting Members of the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District on or before May 18, 2022 are eligible to vote in this election. We urge you to become a full voting member now, so that you can fully participate in our activities, vote at any Special Meetings called during the coming year, and, of course, vote for Directors in the Annual Meetings each August.
How do we vote?
First, we hope you will read the Statement of Candidates who have nominated themselves.
There will be a Candidates Night on Tuesday, August 9, 2022, starting at 6:00 pm, at which candidates are invited to speak and respond to questions. Join via Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85148602475, or call 669-900-6833 and use Meeting ID: 851 4860 2475.
Online voting will open at roughly 7:00 pm on Tuesday, August 9, 2022, and close at 5:00 pm on Monday, August 15, 2022. All voting must take place during this six-day voting period.
Each eligible voter will receive instructions via email directly from OpaVote, a secure voting platform, including a link to the voting Web site and a random code to allow them to vote once. On the voting Web site, you will be shown a list of the candidates, and asked to drag the names of candidates up and down until your first choice is at the top and your last choice is at the bottom. This is called “ranked choice voting”. (Vote counting details are provided below.)
You will also be shown a list of candidates for President, and will vote in the same manner. (If you vote for someone who is not elected to the Board, your second choice candidate will receive your vote.)
If you anticipate being unable to vote electronically during the voting period for any reason, please contact the Nominations Committee, and arrangements will be made for you to vote by some other technology, such as USPS.
Unofficial results of the Elections may be posted on our Web site or social media once the results are tabulated; they will be formally announced at the Annual Membership Meeting on August 17, 2022. The Community is encouraged to attend to welcome the new Board, whose terms begin at the end of this meeting.
I want to Run. What do I do?
To nominate yourself, please use this form.
The self-nomination form includes space for a “Candidate’s Statement” of approximately 250 words or less. You may use this statement however you wish, and it will be included in materials shared with voting members in advance of the election.
The form will also ask you to affirm that you agree with the Mission & Vision of the Organization, and meet one or more of the following criteria:
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- Having lived or worked within the boundaries of the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District (the “District”).
- Been born or raised in the boundaries of the District.
- Have had a history of activism in alignment with the Organizations’ Mission and Vision.
- Have served reliably on one or more of the Organization’s committees for at least one year.
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The form will also ask which constituency or constituencies you represent:
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- Residential tenants;
- Families (traditional, non-traditional, or extended);
- Artists;
- Youth;
- Elders;
- Businesses headquartered and operating within the boundaries of the District;
- Nonprofits, such as arts and culture organizations, community associations, educational institutions, and community service agencies headquartered or operating within the boundaries of the District;
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Finally, the form will ask you to indicate if you would also like to run for President.
We next encourage you to submit a single photograph and/or a short video, to accompany your Candidate’s Statement. Send it, or a publicly-accessible link to it, to nominations@sflcd.org. (The Nominations Committee reserves the right to determine the appropriateness of the picture or video for this use, and to use the media on its Web site and elsewhere.)
The self-nomination details are being posted as they are received, so the sooner you submit them, the better. In any case, be sure to submit your form before 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time, on Friday, July 29, 2022.
Then plan to attend the Candidates Night Zoom Meeting, starting at 6:00 p.m. on the evening of Tuesday, August 9. Be prepared to make a short statement, and to take questions from all meeting participants. You may also share additional materials, such as a short video. If you are for some reason unable to attend on August 9, we will read your statement and present your materials for you.
If you are not currently a voting member of the Cultural District, you must become one before August 9, 2022. (Membership fees are now being waived on request.)
That is all that is required. You may perhaps wish to attend one or more upcoming meetings of the Board of Directors, on Wednesday, June 15 or July 20, 2022 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, review the Cultural District’s Vision and Mission Statements. or even look at the full organizational Bylaws.
How do we elect the Cultural District President?
Election of the President of the LCD will also take place using the same online balloting. All persons running for the Board are invited to also nominate themselves for the office of President, and the names of all those nominees will appear on the ballot; voting will be “instant run-off” style; votes for individuals who are not elected to the Board will be discarded and that voter’s next-highest-preference candidate will receive their vote.
Current Directors may also place themselves in nomination for the office of President, by writing directly to nominations@sflcd.org.
All candidates for President are invited to submit a “Candidate’s Statement” of approximately 250 words or less, if they wish.
How Will the Votes Be Counted?
The Nominations Committee has selected OpaVote.com as the platform upon which to run our online election, using Scottish Single Transferable Vote (STV) to elect our Board, and San Francisco Instant Runoff to elect our President. These are both “ranked choice voting” (RCV) methods, meaning that, on the online ballot, voters will drag the names of candidates up and down until their first choice is at the top and their last choice is at the bottom. These systems are recommended because they assure proportional representation; that is, they help assure that minorities are represented according to their support among voters. Although these systems are numerically complicated, the rules are well-established and easily handled by computers. (This page may be helpful in understanding the Scottish STV method of counting votes. To learn more, please visit this page, or explore the entire OpaVote Web site. )
How Will the winners Be selected?
The Board consists of nine persons, serving “staggered” three year terms, with three seats needing to be filled each year. Vacancies on the Board are filled by appointment by the Board only until the following August, at which time someone is elected to serve for the remainder of the incomplete term.
This year, there is such a vacancy, as a result of the mid-year departure of a Director whose term was due to expire in 2023. One of the four candidates has elected to run for that one-year term. The remaining three candidates are running for the three regular open three-year-term seats.
What if I still have questions?
If you have questions — or if you have concerns regarding any of the Committee’s proposed procedures — please write as soon as possible to nominations@sflcd.org.
The Nominating Committee consists of Val Langmuir (chair), Byrd Bannick, Jonathan Ojinaga, and Eric See, with David Hyman acting as technical advisor.
Who Is on the Board Now?
You can view our current Board of Directors here.
Thank you.