Purpose & Methodology

In 2025, two seats were transitioned from elected to appointed seats on the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team’s (HOT) Board of Directors in order to diversify the organization’s leadership in the areas of financial sustainability, fundraising diversification, and hybrid business models. A new recruitment process was designed and piloted during this time with the support of a newly established Board Nominating Committee composed of Board Members, Voting Members, and HOT staff - supported by an internal staff coordination team.

With the process having concluded successfully, a retrospective was conducted with key stakeholders to help document and analyze their experiences with the aim of improving future recruitment cycles.

This report was compiled using data from:

• a live retrospective with the HOT Board Nominating Committee and HOT staff involved on the internal coordination team
• an asynchronous survey sent to the rest of the HOT Board, staff, and Voting Members involved in the process
• feedback from the final 4 candidates

Board Recruitment Process Stages

The Board Nominating Committee designed recruitment process with the following stages:

Lessons Learned

What went well and should be continued

The process - overall - was “right.” From both the internal and external (i.e. candidate) perspective, the approach was seen as thorough, professional, well-structured, transparent, adaptable, and achieved the multi-stakeholder input needed.

Regarding the internal coordination and communication, the Board Nominating Committee was found to be “fully engaged” and “dedicated”. They were receptive to ideas on how to best approach the process and responded swiftly when adaptations were required. The HOT staff internal coordination team proved “critical” to the success of the effort as well. Finally, the participating Voting Members also provided valuable inputs throughout the process.

“[Voting Member] insights helped ensure candidates were aligned with HOT’s mission and values, and their comments enriched the evaluation process. This inclusive approach also strengthened legitimacy and collective ownership of the final selection.”

Regarding external communications - including the position adverts and communications to candidates - the initial advert was regarded as very “professional”, attracting a great candidate pool. Publishing the advertisement widely combined with targeted outreach proved fruitful.

[There was] a good side effect on HOT’s reputation as the process indicates we were taking our Board seriously.

Finally, the candidate pool was noted as “excellent” and “high quality” with a good mix of skillsets.

“It was clear in all of our conversations that all of the candidates could bring something to the organization…”

What needs to be improved & built upon

The below are the top six opportunities for improvement to the process as identified by members of the Board Nominating Committee and the internal coordination team. In no particular order:

Challenge #1: The process felt “heavy” and went “longer than expected.”

Solutions:

1. “Templatize” the process, incorporating the learnings and solutions identified in the internal report.
2. Create a simple guide or checklist to complement the above template.
3. Shorten the timelines when / where possible to lighten the process and maintain momentum while remaining mindful of what’s realistic / appropriate for those involved.

Challenge #2: Scheduling was often “laborious” and sometimes resulted in “poor turnout” of key stakeholders.

Solutions:

1. Create and maintain an updated, shared calendar of upcoming board transitions and recruitment milestones (start of recruitment, selection of candidates, etc.) This calendar should be visible to Voting Membership, the Board, and HOT staff.
2. Mutually agree on a scheduling method at the outset with all key internal stakeholders (eg Doodle, GCal using the ‘Meet with…’ function).
3. Input blocks in key stakeholders’ calendars when finalizing schedules to better ensure availability remains stable.

Challenge #3: Some roles/responsibilities weren’t clear, including what role Board members outside of the nominating committee should play.

Solutions:

1. Have a prep call at the start of the recruitment process with the entire Board, internal coordination team, and Voting Members that will be involved to mutually agree upon and document expectations, roles/responsibilities, timelines, etc. to better ensure buy-in and surface questions/concerns early.
2. Have a dedicated shared channel to raise questions or concerns throughout the process. Direct non-sensitive questions to that channel so they can be answered in a shared space where all relevant stakeholders can view.

Challenge #4: There was not an easy way to track recruitment progress and see a quick overview of timelines and roles. Board members that weren’t on the Nominating Committee also did not receive many updates in the later stages of the process.

Solutions:

1. At the outset, create and maintain a project on HOT’s project management platform (Asana) to track project progress, assign tasks/deadlines, etc. from project beginning to end. Give all relevant stakeholders access. The internal coordinator should ensure this project is regularly updated and follow-up on tasks accordingly.
2. Regular internal communications should be built into the project and sent to all key stakeholders, including regular snapshot of project progress, upcoming project milestones, access to key resources like candidate profiles, etc.

Challenge #5: There was an inconsistency of interviewers throughout the process.

Solutions:

1. Agree at the outset who will be part of the interviews and what the timeline of those interviews will be.
2. Input more calendar blocks than we expect to need at the outset for all interviewers, allowing us to reschedule interviews if required.

Challenge #6: The scoring sheet was not standardized nor were clear instructions provided.

Solutions:

1. Standardize scoring sheets and provide clear instructions from the outset to all who will be utilizing the sheet. This should come in the form of written instructions as well as over a call, where interviewers have the opportunity to ask questions.
2. Ensure to allow space for ad hoc questions during interviews as the conversations evolve (and build this into the scoring process), while balancing the need for pre-planned questions.

Next Steps

The Board Nominating Committee is reviewing the internal report on the recruitment process before facilitating discussions with the Voting Members HOT staff members that were part of the internal coordination team to determine exact next steps, including how the 2026 recruitment process will be approached, responsibilities, and timelines. Other stakeholders such as the rest of the Board and Voting Membership will be looped and consulted as appropriate.