By Sharon Muza, BS, CD(DONA), BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE

DONA International members, hopefully, you have received (and read) the emails and ballot in your inbox informing you of the current elections for open DONA International Board of Director positions. If you have not yet received your ballot, via email, please contact the DONA International office at DONA@DONA.org. I want to invite you to learn more about the candidates who are running for the open positions and make sure that you vote before the ballot deadline of 5 PM EST on December 13, 2017.

Special election webpage

DONA international has a webpage dedicated to this year’s election. You can find that here. On this page you will find:

  • Videos of the candidates running in 2017
  • Job descriptions of each position
  • Open positions that still need to be filled at this time
  • Information on applying for the 2018 election cycle.

Top five reasons to vote

Here are my top five reasons that all DONA members should vote in the 2017 Board Elections:

  1. All DONA International Board of Directors are volunteers who give an exhaustive amount of time and energy to the organization without any compensation. They deserve your careful consideration as they express interest in serving in the positions they hope to be appointed to.
  2. Your voice is heard. What you think matters. You can help control the direction of the organization and where we put our organizational collective energy by choosing the candidate that you believe is best suited for each position and best represents your views and perspectives.
  3. The nominations committee spent a considerable amount of time vetting potential candidates. The organization’s members show a great deal of respect for the process when they take a few minutes to learn about the candidates and vote.
  4. By becoming familiar with the candidates, their viewpoints, and the board positions, you yourself may become interested in stepping up and getting involved in DONA leadership. New voices and new perspectives are crucial if we are to continue to grow and remain the dynamic leader in the doula profession. There are positions that are still open listed on the elections page.
  5. It is important to understand how our organization is structured and run. Becoming familiar with our board structure through the voting process helps you to become more knowledgeable about how DONA functions.

How to cast your ballot

After learning more about the candidates, head over to the 2017 DONA International Ballot Page and cast your votes. You will need your unique voter information that was emailed you to in the election announcement. Alternately, you can request that information be sent to you if you have misplaced or did not receive it via email. DONA International has hired the services of Survey & Ballot Systems to ensure the integrity and anonymity of the election process. Remember that the ballots close at 5 PM EST, December 13th.