As a growing global community of 202 members across 42 countries, this year we hosted the Business Meeting of the General Assembly virtually to include as many members of our community as possible. The meeting focused on approving the budget, approving the next steps on the business model, and the Executive Board elections.
Along with DataCite’s members, the Executive Board is the governing body of the association. The Executive Board consists of a President, nine Vice Presidents (one of them being the Deputy President) and a Treasurer. One member of the Executive Board is an ex-officio representative of the Business Office. Members of the Executive Board are elected by members at the annual General Assembly and serve for a period of two years.
Today during the 2020 Business Meeting of the General Assembly; two board members were approved for re-election (after serving the previous two year term) and two board members were ratified following their appointment under §12(3) of the DataCite Statutes (If a member of the Executive Board resigns early, the Executive Board may appoint a successor for the remaining term of office of the departing member. Such an appointment shall be ratified by the General Assembly). I am pleased that John Chodacki and Adrian Burton will continue to serve on our board for another two years; and Rebecca Ross and Torsten Reimer had their positions ratified for a two year term.
Rebecca commented on her appointment, “It is a real pleasure to be elected to the DataCite Board and I look forward to working with the exceptional DataCite team and my Board colleagues to advance DataCite’s vision and mission. DataCite’s role in providing persistent identifiers for research is essential for the ongoing strategic development of open infrastructure and increasing the discoverability of research outputs. I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to the organization at such an exciting time in its history.”
Torsten added, “Having seen DataCite grow from an idea into a critical part of the global research infrastructure, I am excited to join the Board at a time when a new membership model should path the road to sustainability. The latter is particularly important for me as we we need transparency and trust in research not just during the current crisis, but for future generations also. DataCite has a key role to play here, for our members but also working with other infrastructure for persistent identifiers, and I am thrilled to work with the team, board colleagues and members to move us forward.”
The four members presented for re-election or ratification at the 2020 Business Meeting of the General Assembly, will join the eight continuing Executive Board members:
- Mohamed A. Ba-Essa, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
- Adrian Burton, Australian Research Data Commons (re-elected)
- John Chodacki (Board President), California Digital Library (re-elected)
- Mark Hahnel, figshare
- Viv Hutchinson, US Geological Survey
- Marco Marsella (Board Treasurer), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
- Salvatore Mele, CERN
- Torsten Reimer, British Library
- Rebecca Ross (Deputy President), Canadian Research Knowledge Network
- Irina Sens (Business Office ex-officio), German National Library of Science and Technology
- Herbert Van de Sompel, Data Archiving and Networked Services
- Jamie Wittenberg, Indiana University Libraries
DataCite welcomes feedback and discussion from all members of the DataCite community. Please contact Board members or staff if you have any questions or comments. As our Board President, John Chodacki, shared during the Business Meeting, “The strength of DataCite comes from the active participation and communication from our community. I know all members appreciate Rebecca Ross and Torsten Reimer stepping forward. Please join me in thanking them both for making the commitment to support our shared goals and please make sure to reach out to them and any member of the Board with your perspectives.”
