The Nominations Committee serves on behalf of the Society to support effective governance at SMUS. Its mandate is to ensure that prospective candidates bring the skills, experience, knowledge, and commitment needed for the Board to meet its fiduciary responsibilities and to govern in the best long-term interests of the School. In many ways, its work is akin to a human resources function for the Board: facilitating review of governors whose terms are set to expire and are eligible for renewal, issuing a call for nominations to the Society, and interviewing and vetting new candidates, and helping them to learn about the Board.

The Committee’s responsibilities include:

• Engaging the community such as by issuing a Call for Nominations to Society members to broaden the pool of prospective candidates
• Assessing succession needs to help develop a balanced profile of skills and experience on the Board of Governors 
• Interviewing and vetting prospective candidates. Facilitating review of governors whose terms are set to expire and who are eligible for renewal. 
• Recommending candidates to the Society for election, in line with the bylaws
• Administering the election process in a fair and transparent manner, including appointing scrutineers to oversee results as defined in the bylaws

Committee deliberations are confidential. This protects the privacy of prospective candidates and encourages open, candid discussion, much like in hiring practices or performance evaluations in other organizations.

To ensure fairness, Nominations Committee members who are also candidates are fully recused from Committee deliberations and election activities.

The Bylaws establish the Nominations Committee as an autonomous body set up by the Board. Its principal responsibility to the SMUS Society is to ensure that suitably qualified candidates are nominated to fill vacancies on the Board.

Candidates are nominated in two ways:

A) By the Board appointed Nominations Committee. The SMUS Society Bylaws were drawn up to ensure that sufficient nominees would be available to fill vacancies on the Board of Governors. The Bylaws (Article 5) require institution by the Board of an autonomous Nominations Committee.

B) A Society member or members following the publication of the Nominations Papers.

The Committee is appointed by the Board for a one-year term, starting in October each year. For a list of current members, see the Board Committees section of the website.

The Nominations Committee is charged each year with the critical task of assessing the composition of the Board in light of vacancies caused by departing Governors, and then selecting suitable candidates for nomination. This is an ongoing task that continuously occupies the Nominations Committee and is undertaken with great diligence and deliberation. As an autonomous body set up by the Board its workings are necessarily confidential and its principal responsibility to the SMUS Society is to ensure that qualified candidates are nominated to fill vacancies on the Board.

The Committee identifies suitably qualified candidates through community engagement, including issuing Calls for Nominations, receiving inquiries from Society members about serving on the Board or its committees, and drawing on the experience of all the different Board Committee members. Not only are the short, medium and long term operational requirements of the school considered, careful assessment is also given to the specific skills and experience necessary in each potential candidate in order to serve the school most effectively as it moves forward with the execution of the Strategic Plan to fulfil the Mission of the school.

Candidates are considered who are willing and able to volunteer their expertise, time, energy and resources to the school, who are strategic thinkers, who are fully engaged with the school (or who will become so engaged) and whose maturity, expertise and wisdom will contribute significantly to the effective governance of the school.

The Nominations Committee also considers the diversity of representation and perspectives on the Board with regard to many factors such as experience and background, gender, alumni, and parents, both day and boarding.

The Nominations Committee works much like an HR function for the Board. Its purpose is to help ensure that the Board, as a whole, has the right balance of experience, skills, and perspectives to fulfill its fiduciary responsibilities effectively and to govern in the best long-term interests of the School. By evaluating the Board’s needs, including succession planning and balancing continuity with renewal, and recommending candidates who contribute to this balance, the Committee supports the Society in electing a Board that is well equipped to meet its responsibilities.

Approximately six months before an Annual General Meeting (AGM), the Nominations Committee distributes nominations papers to all Society members by email outlining the number of candidates needed to fill vacancies on the Board of Governors, together with the Committee’s list of nominated candidates to fill these vacancies.

The nominations papers give full details and deadlines, together with instructions on how to nominate, so that if Society members wish to nominate additional candidates, they may do so at that time.

Under the Society’s bylaws, candidates for election to the Board of Governors may be nominated in two ways.

Candidates recommended by the Nominations Committee go through a structured vetting process. For new candidates, this includes interviews and the opportunity to learn more about the Board’s work and needs. For governors eligible to return, it includes a confidential peer review process. In all cases, the Committee considers succession planning and the balance of skills, experience, and perspectives required for the Board to fulfill its fiduciary responsibilities effectively.

Self-nominated candidates follow a different path. They share their skills, experience, and reasons for seeking election directly with the Society, without going through the Committee’s evaluation process.

The same election process is strictly followed for all candidates, with each candidate’s biography and statement made available to voters so that members of the Society can make an informed choice. The right of any member to be nominated for election as provided by the Bylaws is not only recognized, but also rigorously observed in the nominations and elections procedures. While being fair to all candidates, the Nominations Committee is guided by its responsibilities under the Bylaws to recommend suitably qualified candidates to the Society.

In a typical year the positions of four governors come up for election as Governors are elected to a three-year term and there are 12 elected governors. If the number of nominees does not exceed the vacant Governor positions by the nomination deadline, the election is by acclamation, otherwise an election is held by an online ballot.

If, at the end of the nominations period (21 days following the mailing of the nominations papers) the number of nominations exceeds the vacant governor positions, the Nominations Committee will post resumes and brief statements of interest of candidates on the school website, and advise all Society members no later than 110 days following the date of original mailing of nomination papers. The list of continuing members of the Board, and the means to participate in the ballot will be emailed to all registered and confirmed Society members and posted online. Society members then have until the date specified in the instructions to place their votes for counting.

All members of the SMUS Society in good standing and who have up-to-date contact information with the Society (an email address) are entitled to vote and will receive instructions by email on how to vote online in the event of an election. See the SMUS Society membership page for information on eligibility.

In the past the question has arisen whether or not a meeting of candidates should be held. It is considered to be in the best interests of all Society members to judge the candidates, and vote based on the skills and experience information profile provided in the biographies included in the instruments for the online ballot. Election by vote is prescribed by the Bylaws since it reflects the makeup of Society membership, and recognizes that it would be unfair to Boarding parents, for whom attendance at such a meeting would be impossible in most cases; the same being true for many other members of the Society such as alumni and alumni parents no longer living in the Victoria area.

Candidates nominated by the Nominations Committee are very carefully considered as to suitability prior to nomination; with candidates nominated by Society members as much care as possible is taken by the Committee to ensure their skills experience profiles adequately enable members to judge the relative merits of all candidates when voting. The same information is provided in writing to all Society members in order for them to make a fair decision when voting. The best practices followed by other comparable independent schools shows that candidates meetings are not held, probably because such meetings tend to be politically charged and inappropriate for the purpose of electing volunteer governors for a school.

The integrity of the voting process is very important, and the Nominations Committee takes steps to ensure that proper process is followed throughout.

Pursuant to the Bylaws, the Board of Governors has authorized that governor elections may be conducted by electronic means. The e-voting platform selected for this purpose provides a secure, easy to use and efficient method for conducting an election. All eligible members receive a unique personal voting code, together with an electronic ballot and instructions to link to the SMUS election website. There the voter is invited to select up to the maximum number of candidates for election on the ballot and press submit. Once submitted the voting code cannot be used again. The vote is electronically deposited in the secure databases of the independent platform provider. The votes are secret/anonymous as submitted. On the date set for counting, a tabulation is run electronically by the platform provider under the scrutiny of the scrutineers appointed in accordance with the Bylaws and the results are verified and confirmed. The Nominations Committee is informed of the successful candidates and the result is posted on the school website.

The Nominations Committee is always looking for new, prospective Board members to serve. We encourage you to first reach out to [email protected] to express your interest so that we can start exploring a match of your background and skills with Committee and Board needs. The Nominations Committee or the current relevant Committee Chair will consider your skills and experience, relative to upcoming Board and Committee needs and composition, in addition to factoring in the fit with other Society Members who may have already expressed an interest. Serving on a Committee and the Board may require a significant amount of volunteer time and commitment, so it is often recommended that registered Society members begin as volunteers on a Board Committee, or consider serving the school in a voluntary capacity through the Alumni Association, the Parents' Auxiliary or the Vivat Foundation, prior to considering board service. This is a great way for the Board and the school to get to know potential candidates better and for those interested Society members to get to understand the Board and the school better prior to serving.

For 2025, the Nominations Committee is particularly looking for candidates with strong finance experience in an executive leadership role, particularly those with a CA/CPA certification. Candidates with these skills backgrounds who are not SMUS alumni are also encouraged to put their names forward to help balance out our current Board composition.

Serving as a current governor is not a guarantee of continuation on the Board. We hold ourselves accountable for performance and adhere to the principles of good governance and a strict code of conduct in our service to the Society. We have a thorough review process for returning governors that takes place over the final year of a Governor’s term which includes peer surveys and objective evaluation criteria. All governors that are recommended by the Nominations Committee have successfully passed this process.