It’s election time in the Joomniverse! Twice a year, we can choose which Joomlers will represent us in the Board of Open Source Matters. You can be one of them! Are you passionate about Joomla and do you think you got what it takes to become our new Vice President, Outreach Department Coordinator or Treasurer? This is your moment!

The Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. (the organisation behind Joomla) provides organisational, legal and financial support to the Joomla Project. In other words: the board facilitates Joomla so we can all use, maintain and improve it. At the moment of writing, open positions are Vice President, Treasurer and Outreach Department Coordinator. The three current Board Members are all running for another term, so the people you’d be up against are Richard Gosler (Outreach), Ufuk Avcu (Treasurer) and Emmanuel Lemor (VP) (thanks Richard, Ufuk and Emmanuel 😍). 

Right now, the call for candidates is open. If you’re interested in one of these roles, the first thing you need to do is to write a manifesto that contains your ideas and your plans, and submit it before the deadline. Check the calls for manifestos here: https://community.joomla.org.

Vice President

As our Vice President, you represent Joomla and its community in every possible way. That means you help and support the DCs and the teams and work closely with your fellow board members. You attend (international) events, give talks, liaise with other CMS and key players in the Open Source community, engage with Joomla communities, come up with ideas and strategies that contribute to growth and health for Joomla. You support the President, and if needed, replace the President.

People often think this role is about power - it isn’t. Within the board, the department coordinators define strategy and goals, and the board as a whole discusses and approves them and  sets the direction and the future of Joomla. So you do it all together. If that’s totally your thing, go for it!

What should you bring?

Commitment, enthusiasm, passion for Joomla, genuine interest in people, an open mind when it comes to opinions and ideas that are different from your own opinions and ideas, and the ability to listen to our community and advocate on their behalf.

Treasurer

Our Treasurer has a joint top fiduciary responsibility for Open Source Matters, inc. and the Joomla project, together with the President. Fiduciary? What The Finance is that? It means you’re responsible for the money, aka the organisation’s funds and finances, at the highest level. You’re all about financial transactions, keeping financial records, approving expenses, making financial reports and coordinating with our legal and accounting representatives.You are also responsible for creating and preparing the annual budget; that means you coordinate the budget planning process of other Board members. 

What should you bring?

For this one, knowledge and experience are just as important as commitment and passion for Joomla. You know how financial and accounting procedures work, you have knowledge of financial regulations, and you have analytical and numerical skills. You’ve got what it takes to help your fellow board members with their financial tasks, such as budgeting and reporting. 

Outreach Department Coordinator

The Outreach Department Coordinator coordinates all teams involved in connecting Joomla with the rest of the world - and there’s a lot of those. That means marketing, communication, events, education… You’ll be in touch with almost every team in the organisation to see what’s going on, what they’re doing and what they’re planning. So communication is key here, as are a good overview and the ability to connect and get people to work together. 

What should you bring?

Great communication skills, passion for Joomla and its community, the ability to oversee multiple projects at once, patience, management skills and an open mindset. 

What should all potential Board Members bring?

You mean apart from passion for Joomla and its community?

A good sense of reality and the ability to put things in perspective. Our community is made of committed people who all want the best for Joomla and sometimes have strong ideas about what ‘the best’ means, so things will happen. There will be discussions, disagreements and situations that are not pleasant. Sometimes decisions have to be made that not everyone agrees with. It helps if you’re able not to take criticism personally, if you’re good with people, can see things from different points of view and if you have a sense of humour. 

What happens next?

You have until August 7, 2026 to hand in your manifesto. The manifestos then get published on https://community.joomla.org, so we can all read why the candidates are interested in the role and what they want to bring to Joomla.

Recommendation phase 

Once the manifestos are published, there’s a period of time when people can write a recommendation for the candidate(s). A call for this will also be published on the Community website (see link in previous paragraph).

Get to know the candidate(s)

Members of the Board should be the ones supporting, encouraging and enabling the teams that make Joomla happen.
It can be difficult for us voters to know if the candidates are up for this important task. We have a great way to find out more about the candidates, beyond the manifesto. 

For each role, dedicated Mattermost channels are opened where anyone can ask questions and get in touch with the candidate(s). What do they know about our community? How do they respond to difficult questions? How realistic are their ambitions? Do they know what will be expected from them? Are they the candidate you want to be represented by? Use this opportunity to get informed and be able to vote wisely.

The Mattermost channels not only tell us this, you can also read between the lines and see for yourself how the candidates communicate, work and lead. 

Here’s how to join Joomla’s Mattermost channel: https://magazine.joomla.org/all-issues/november-2022/getting-the-most-out-of-mattermost  

Voting starts

And then it’s up to the Joomla Community to pick the best candidate for each role. Everyone who is a member of an official Joomla team can vote in the VP and Treasurer election. For Outreach DC, you can vote if you’re a member of an official team in the Outreach Department.

If you’re allowed to vote, you will receive an email with a voting link. This link leads to a voting form that has three options:

• Vote for a candidate
• Abstain
• None of the Above

The difference between the last two is that abstaining doesn’t count as a vote whereas None of the above counts as a vote against the candidate(s). 

Disclaimer: the next part is my personal opinion.

“We need someone and this is someone” is not a valid reason to vote for a candidate. It could work out well, but it could also end badly for Joomla.

Valid reasons to vote for a candidate could be:

• The candidate has proven they’re able to do the job, for example in a previous term or another role in leadership 
• You know the candidate very well and you are sure they can do it
• You don't know the candidate very well, but they seem capable and you're willing and able to help them grow in their role
• The candidate has people skills
• Their manifesto is focused on Joomla and on making it better, together.

Reasons to not vote for a candidate (or to vote None of the Above) could be:

• None of the candidates are suitable for the job
• The candidate has unrealistic ambitions or promises very drastic changes
• The candidate is known for picking fights, attacking people, threatening or bullying 
• The candidate doesn’t show any respect for their predecessors and/or the community, or lacks people skills entirely 
• The manifesto shows very little “we”, “together”, “team”, “listen” and “community”
• The candidate acts like a loner on their way to world domination
• The candidate is clearly in it for themselves

Reasons to abstain:

I can't think of a reason to abstain. 

If you can't choose between candidates because they’re all good and fit for the job, pick the one who has the best chance of winning or pick one randomly. 

If you can’t choose because none of the candidates are right for the role, vote None of the Above.

Does voting None of the Above sound a bit harsh to you?

I get that. But, people, we deserve to have good people in leadership roles.

Our 20+ years history has proven over time: if someone is not up for it, incapable, or in it for the wrong reasons, there’s no way they could ever be a happy and committed board member that helps Joomla forward.
If it takes longer to find the right person for the job, then so be it. Having someone not suitable in an important position could do more harm than having no one for a while. 

Conclusion

So: if you’re interested in one of the board positions and you think you’ve got what it takes: go for it.

If you’re in an official Joomla team and allowed to vote: get to know everything about the candidates so you can make a well-informed, well-considered decision.

Read about the whole process and the timeline here: https://community.joomla.org/blogs/leadership/call-for-manifestos-group-1-elections-2026.html