Nominations Sought for IRIS Board of Directors

Elections for important positions on the IRIS Board of Directors will be held during IRIS’s 2021 Annual Election this fall. This year, elections this will be held for two Director positions and to select the new/current Director who will serve as vice-Chair of the Board. 

Nominations (including self-nominations) for these open positions are encouraged and should be sent to a member of the Nominations Committee (see below) by early September to receive full consideration. We strongly encourage nominations that will expand the diversity and/or the disciplinary breadth of the IRIS Board.

This year’s elections will occur under unique circumstances given that IRIS and UNAVCO are planning to merge into the EarthScope Consortium, Incorporated (ESCO), as was approved by the membership of both organizations in 2020. The nominal timeline for this merger to be completed is late 2022. Per our community approved ESCO bylaws, a 12-member Board of Directors will be created for ESCO. The first ESCO board will be composed of two existing Directors appointed by each of the IRIS and UNAVCO Boards at the time of merger, respectively, and eight members who will be elected by the community. Thus, while IRIS Directors elected in 2021 are nominally elected for a three-year term, they would serve only one year under this merger timeline but will be eligible for a one-year appointment to the initial ESCO Board of Directors. Nominations for this year’s elections will include members of the seismology community for the UNAVCO Board and members of the geodesy community for the IRIS Board, so that the 2022 Boards of each organization can lead the process of aligning our activities even before the formal merger date.

As described in the election procedures of the IRIS Bylaws, the Nominations Committee "shall prepare a slate of one or more nominees for each Director position to be filled.” Electronic ballots with a list of candidates and details on the voting procedure will be sent to all Member Representatives in late October / early November. Results of the election will be announced during the IRIS Membership Meeting in early December.

The Board-appointed Nominations Committee consists of two current Board members and three community members: 

          Brandon Schmandt (Chair)
          University of New Mexico
          bschmandt@unm.edu       

          Clifford Thurber (Past Chair)
          University of Wisconsin, Madison
          cthurber@wisc.edu        

          Max Bezada 
          University of Minnesota
          mbezada@umn.edu

          Kris Pankow
          University of Utah 
          pankowseis2@gmail.com

          Susan Schwartz
          University of California, Santa Cruz
          syschwar@ucsc.edu

The Directors whose terms expire at the end of 2021 are:

          Susan Schwartz
          Charles Ammon (Vice Chair)

Continuing Directors and the year they complete their service are as follows: 

          Rick Aster, Chair (2022)
          Jackie Caplan-Auerbach (2022)
          Sarah Kruse (2022)
          Brandon Schmandt (2022)
          Victor Tsai (2023)
          Lara Wagner (2023)
          Phil Wannamaker (2023)

A list of current IRIS committees and their members can be found at https://dev.iris.edu/hq/about_iris/governance.

Thank you for your continued involvement in the activities of your Consortium.

Rick Aster, Chair, IRIS Board of Directors
Bob Woodward, President, IRIS