Worldwide Board: Elections for Triennium 2025-27

Starting in May, 2024, Mothers’ Union will be starting the process for the election of the next Board of trustees for the worldwide movement – the Worldwide President and 11 Zonal Trustees for different regions in the world, including All Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Canterbury and York

The next Triennium is particularly exciting, because the Board will be overseeing all our activities for the 150^th Anniversary for the movement, as well as refreshing the strategic plan, following on from the vision set by Worldwide Council in Kigali in 2019, and continuing the drive for Transformation in Action

The roles:

The Worldwide President is the leader of the global movement, the figurehead for Mothers’ Union within and outside the organization. They are also the Chair of the Worldwide Board, and responsible for line managing the CEO and staff team at Mary Sumner House. As well as being a deeply committed Christian, the postholder needs to be an excellent ambassador for MU, within the Anglican Communion and beyond, as well as having the skills to Chair the Board of a global organization. They may or may not have had experience at the worldwide board level of MU, but they must have been a member for at least 5 years, and be able to evidence significant leadership experience. 

Zonal Trustees

As well as being accountable with fellow board members for oversight of the central charity under UK Charity law, and taking decisions collectively in the best interests of the Charity, its stakeholders and beneficiaries, each Zonal Trustee has a bridging role between the Worldwide Board and the constituent province or provinces. Their role is to feedback to the Provinces the key decisions from the Board, and to provide insights on issues of importance to the Provinces back to the Board. They may also, by agreement, visit Provinces within the Zone and potentially convene meetings with the constituent provincial presidents, for fellowship or to discuss key issues, online. They need to have been a member of Mothers’ Union for at least 2 years.

Timeline

End April: The nominations process is launched online through a special site built by the organization, MiVoice. The process is advertised widely, and all members or all electoral colleges are sent a link to the site

9^th June: Nominations site closes

10^th June – early July: Nominations Committee meets to review all nominations against the role descriptions. Archbishop of Canterbury is asked to approve the shortlist for Worldwide President, shortlisted candidates are asked to confirm their willingness to serve

Early July – 28^th August: All members of the electoral colleges are sent links to the voting area of the website for the Worldwide President and their Zonal Trustee, and can vote at any time in the period

29^th August -2^nd September: Nominations Committee verifies the results as declared and certified by MiVoice. Successful candidates are asked to confirm willingness to take up the roles, and unsuccessful candidates are notified

3^rd September: Zoom announcement of results

1^st January2025: New Board takes over responsibility

Who can nominate?

Any individual can complete a self-nomination form on line. They then need to identify two individuals to verify their statements and make nomination statements, also online. For the Worldwide President, at least one nominator must be from outside their Zone; for Zonal Trustees, where feasible, at least one nominator must be outside their home Province (this is not possible within Britian and Ireland, where each Province is a Zone in its own right.)

Who can vote?

The electoral college for the Worldwide President comprises current worldwide board members, past central and Worldwide Presidents and provincial presidents and diocesan presidents from around the world, some 600 in total.

For each Zone, the core college is the same as for the Worldwide President. However, in order to ensure that there are sufficient eligible voters in each Zone, MSH is consulting with the current Zonal Trustees and provincial presidents, to agree which other roles are eligible to vote in each Zone. These will be announced prior to the voting stage, and all who are eligible will receive an email with a link to the voting website.

For dioceses and provinces to be eligible to vote, in line with the Constitution, they must have paid their subscriptions or contributions to the Central Charity within the previous 12 months.

Please see below:

Role description for WWP

Role description for Zonal Trustee (including the list of provinces in each Zone)

Code of conduct for the nominations and elections process