Transparency, diversity and open opportunity–Lessons learned from the 2021 INFORMS Board of Directors Nominating Committee

There are many opportunities for members to serve INFORMS and its community, including service on the INFORMS Board of Directors, various committees as subdivision officers and in many other roles. While there is some expected variation regarding the nomination and selection processes for these positions, it is important to establish transparency, equity and inclusion in our practices.

This year, the Nominating Committee, which determines all election slates for the INFORMS Board, followed a process with the goal of increasing transparency, broadening the pool of candidates, and ensuring that all members who have an interest in INFORMS service have an opportunity to be considered. The 2021 Nominating Committee relied on the strengths of previous nominating committee processes but added four new steps. The committee is sharing these new steps here to encourage all nominating and selection committees to consider the suitability of these additions.

• A widely promoted open call for nominations across multiple channels, including spreading the word by the current volunteers and INFORMS subdivision officers, announcements in OR/MS Today, announcing the open positions at numerous sessions at the INFORMS Annual Meeting, etc. Note that self-nominations, as well as nominations from third parties, were also encouraged. This effort led to a significantly higher number of nominations for 2021 compared with those in the past couple of years.
• An online application portal for those nominees who were interested in serving. A formal email communication was sent to all nominees to confirm their interest with an invitation to apply via the portal. A structured, short application form was designed to enable the committee to collect key information needed in the evaluation process and helped level the playing field across all applicants.
• Criteria for evaluation was determined and agreed upon by the Nominating Committee prior to the start of the evaluation process to ensure a fair and equitable evaluation of each candidate.
• An evaluation process that is conducive to improved decision-making. Specifically, Nominating Committee members were instructed to be mindful of their own implicit biases, and were also empowered to express their point of view. That is, each member was given time to individually evaluate the candidates prior to any group discussion to avoid group think. The committee then met as a team and evaluated and ranked
  the candidates (over a few separate rounds) to allow for exchange of ideas among the members and a comprehensive evaluation process.

As a result of this revised process, the Nominating Committee received a diverse and large number of candidates. The high quality of the candidates reaffirmed the amazing talent and keen interest in service among our community members.  Selecting just a few out of a large pool of well-qualified nominees was still a very challenging task for the committee, but these new steps helped ensure a streamlined and fair process. Given the few open board positions for the next year, we only chose a small number of candidates for the 2021 slate. Some of the nominees not selected expressed an interest in serving on other committees and will be considered for other service opportunities.

The Nominating Committee hopes that this process might serve as an example for selecting officers for subdivisions and other committees as well.