Board nominations and elections

The Board must be made up of a minimum of seven and a maximum of 12 members with the following minimum composition:

• Four members nominated and elected by voting members – including at least one Interpreter member
• One member nominated and elected by non-voting members
• One corporate member nominated and elected by the corporate members
• ITI’s Chief Executive

The Board currently has 11 members: eight voting members, one non-voting member, one corporate member and the Chief Executive. Voting members must always be in a majority on the Board. Information about the current Board members can be found in Our people.

The Board discusses and agrees the ITI’s strategy and ensures that the ITI is financially viable, that it meets its legal and governance obligations and that it achieves its objectives.

The Chief Executive is responsible for ITI's day-to-day operation and supports Board members by providing the information, advice, and options they need to make decisions.

Joining the Board is not a decision to be taken lightly as you will become a Director of the ITI with certain legal responsibilities.

It is important to the ITI that Board members represent the membership with a broad range of skills and experience. These are not necessarily professional or corporate skills, so please don’t feel that any perceived lack of such experience should prevent you from standing. Help and support will be given throughout by current Board members and our office team, backed up by specialist support from our Accountant and Company Secretary, to enable you to develop in your role.

It is important to the function of the Board that you work with other Board members to make decisions in the name of all ITI members. This may sometimes involve compromise to ensure that the jointly agreed priorities may be delivered. We encourage healthy and effective working relationships with other Board members, so that all can contribute on an equal footing and rightly expect to have a similar mutually respectful relationship with fellow Board members.

Reading the Board member role profile will help you understand more fully what is involved. 

Reading the Board member Code of Conduct will help you understand more fully what the responsibilities are.

The Board meets formally nine times each year. Six of the Board meetings are held online in the afternoon. The other two meetings are usually held face to face at our offices in Milton Keynes over two half days - during the afternoon of the first day and the morning of the second day - with an informal social evening in between. There is also an AGM in October. The first Board meeting of the year will take place in early May 2024. Additional meetings are also sometimes required.

In addition to formal meetings, ITI events such as the Conference are a great opportunity to network and share views with other members. Board members are encouraged to attend these events; conference ticket costs are paid for by ITI, but not travel and accommodation costs.

Board members are likely to take time away from their day job to attend meetings held in Milton Keynes, so ITI will pay £200 for each face-to-face meeting attended to compensate for lost earnings. Board members are also paid £50 for each full online Board meeting.

ITI will cover costs of Board members' travel within the UK and Europe. We encourage the use of public transport and/or shared travel wherever possible. If a Board members lives outside of this area they will be asked to use video conferencing.

Information correct at 16/02/2024.

If you would like to speak to someone about becoming a Board member please complete the Ask the Board form and a member of the Nominations committee will get in touch. 

You must provide the following information on the nomination form:

• Your name, address, email address, phone number and ITI membership number.
• A nomination and election statement of up to 250 words, explaining why you believe you should be nominated and elected.
• A recent headshot.
• Information about any other interests you may have, known as a “declaration of interests”. As a company director, you are required by law to give information about your other interests, so that we can avoid the risk of a conflict between your other interests and those of ITI. Any information provided will be treated in strict confidence.
• Details of “connected persons” (You only need to complete this section if you have a connected person who is likely to or is currently doing business with the Institute in any capacity. The definition of connected person includes your husband, wife, partner, parents, grandparents, children, stepchildren, children of a partner, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, grandchildren, brothers 4/4 and sisters or the spouse or partner of any of these persons and includes similar relations by marriage (i.e., “in laws”).

Yes. You must be supported by members within the same category of membership as yourself. We have listened and improved how nominees get support, which is the same for all categories. Once ITI has reviewed your nomination application to ensure all the details are correct, you will go forward to gain support. All the nominee’s details will be sent out to all the members in that group, so that they may then nominate one member. Once this stage has closed, we will know whether an election is necessary.

The support required for each category is set out below. Once you have the required number of supporters, you will be put forward to stand for election. Support required: Voting members require three other voting members to support them. Please note: if the number of successful nominations is the same or less than the vacancies within a category, an election will not be held. The candidate(s) nominated will then automatically join the ITI Board from the beginning of the next financial year (1 May). If you are the only Interpreter member to stand and you gain enough support, no election will be held and you will automatically join the ITI Board from the beginning of the next financial year (01 May).

The election is conducted using the single transferable vote (STV), in which members are asked to rank the candidates in order of preference. To be elected a candidate needs to achieve the quota. The quota is the minimum number of votes required to guarantee a candidate's election e.g. in an election for 3 positions, the quota would be 25% of the vote.

An example of how the process works:

The first preference votes are counted and “Lesley” is elected with more votes than they needed. Lesley’s surplus votes are redistributed at a reduced value according to their voters' second preferences at stage 2. Transferring a successful candidate's surplus votes in this way ensures that each member's vote has a more equal weight in determining who is finally elected. The candidates with the fewest votes are then excluded in turn and their votes are redistributed according to the next available preference. This process continues until the required number of candidates exceed the quota and are elected.

You can read more about STV on the University of Cambridge website and the Electoral Reform Society.