Dear colleagues,

After the decision of the GGN Executive Board, which was taken after consultation with the Organizing Committee of the 9th International Conference on UNESCO Global Geoparks, regarding the realization of the aforementioned Conference digitally in December 2021, the GGN Executive Board at its 102nd meeting which was held on September 16th, decided unanimously that the GGN Elections will take place at the 3rd GGN Ordinary General Assembly which will be held digitally during the Conference.

Taking into consideration:

• The GGN Statutes and Operation Guidelines
• The current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic
• The fact that the GGN Association is subject to French legislation
• The French Health Emergency Act of 23 March 2020 and Order No. 2020-321 of 25 March 2020.

The GGN Executive Board with its 4.4/102/16.09.2021 decision is pleased to announce the upcoming elections of the GGN Executive Board and the GGN Advisory Committee Chair and Vice Chair which will take place digitally on December 15th, 2021, at the 3rd GGN Ordinary General Assembly, which will be organized in parallel with the 9th International Conference on UNESCO Global Geoparks organised by Jeju Island UNESCO Global Geopark, Republic of Korea.

For the Global Geoparks Network Executive Board

Professor Nickolas Zouros
President of the GGN Executive Board

Elections Calendar GGN Executive Board

Elections Calendar GGN Executive Board Advisory Committee Chairperson & Vice-Chairperson

GGN EXECUTIVE BOARD ELECTIONS [pdf]

Official candidatures

GGN ADVISORY COMMITTEE
CHAIRPERSON & VICE CHAIRPERSON ELECTIONS [pdf]

Official candidatures

GGN EXECUTIVE BOARD

CALL FOR CANDIDATURES
Deadline 11th October 2021

Following the GGN Statutes the GGN Executive Board invites:

All eligible GGN members - in good standing (Representatives of the Institutional Members and Individual Members) to submit their candidacy to run for a position in the GGN Executive Board.

Deadline for submissions: October 11th, 2021 at 24:00 GMT.

The GGN on September 16th, 2021 has 169 Institutional Members and 33 Individual Members. The Member lists and Numbers are published in the GGN website.

GGN Executive Board

The new GGN Executive Board will be elected at the 3rd GGN Ordinary General Assembly which will take place in December 15th, 2021 during the 9th International Conference in UNESCO Global Geoparks which will be held ONLINE by Jeju Island UNESCO Global Geopark.

The new GGN Executive Board, will consist of 13 seats: 5 for the Executive Board Officers: President, Two Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, and General Secretary of GGN and 8 Members. A candidate can apply for a single function only, either as Executive Board Member or as Executive Board Officer.

Following the provisions of the GGN Statutes Article 11, section 1 and taking into account the current location of the 169 GGN Institutional Members, the 8 Members of the Executive Board should include:

2 seats representing Institutional Members from APGN

2 seats representing Institutional Members from EGN

1 seat for a representative of Institutional Members from the Latin America and Caribbean Geoparks Network GeoLAC

1 seat for a representative of Institutional Members from North America

1 seat for a representative of Institutional Member from Africa

1 seat for a Global Geopark Professional.

The GGN Institutional Members shall nominate individuals (Representatives of GGN Institutional Members or GGN Individual Members) as candidates for election as Members of the GGN Executive Board and for the seats of the Executive Board Officers: President, Two Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, and General Secretary of GGN.

The GGN Individual Members shall be nominated as candidates for election as Members of the GGN Executive Board and for the seats of the Executive Board Officers: President, Two Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, and General Secretary of GGN, solely by:

- the Advisory Committees (AC) of the GGN Regional Networks, or

- the GGN National Forum/Committee of the country where he or she resides; or

- at least 5 GGN Institutional Members coming from at least two different states than the candidate.

Candidacies must be addressed to the GGN Secretariat: ggnassociation[at]hotmail.com | ggnsecretariat[at]hotmail.com

September 16th, 2021
The GGN Executive Board

GGN Executive Board Candidature Form

GGN ADVISORY COMMITTEE
CHAIRPERSON & VICE-CHAIRPERSON

CALL FOR CANDIDATURES

Following the GGN Statutes the GGN Executive Board invites:

The appointed representatives of GGN National Fora/Committees to submit their candidacy to run for the position the GGN Advisory Committee Chairperson and the Vice-Chairperson.

Deadline for submissions: November 4th, 2021 at 24:00 GMT.

The GGN on September 16th, 2021 has 169 Institutional Members and 33 Individual Members. The Member lists and Numbers are published in the GGN website.

Candidacies must be addressed to the GGN Secretariat: ggnassociation[at]hotmail.com | ggnsecretariat[at]hotmail.com

September 16th, 2021
The GGN Executive Board

GGN Advisory Committee Chair Candidature Form

GGN 3rd ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Deadline for the submission of the representatives of the GGN Institutional Members: 30th October 2021

GGN Institutional Member Representative Form

GGN ELECTORAL PROCEDURES

The procedures for the election of the GGN Executive Board will follow the article 3 of the GGN Internal Regulations and Procedures Document

Article 3 - ELECTION TO THE GGN EXECUTIVE BOARD

3.1. Candidacies

3.1.1 Nomination of candidates - Candidacy forms

Candidates for election as Members of the GGN Executive Board and for the seats of the Executive Board Officers: President, Two Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, and General Secretary of GGN can be individuals either representatives of the Institutional Members either Individual Members.

A candidate can apply for a single function only, either as Executive Board member or as Executive Board officer.

a. Nomination of candidates

The GGN Institutional Members shall nominate individuals (Representatives of GGN Institutional Members or GGN Individual Members) as candidates for election as Members of the GGN Executive Board and for the seats of the Executive Board Officers: President, Two Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, and General Secretary of GGN.

The GGN Individual Members shall be nominated as candidates for election as Members of the GGN Executive Board and for the seats of the Executive Board Officers: President, Two Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, and General Secretary of GGN, solely by:

- the Advisory Committees (AC) of the GGN Regional Networks, or

- the GGN National Forum/Committee of the country where he or she resides; or

- at least 5 GGN Institutional Members coming from at least two different states than the candidate.

b. Candidacy forms

The candidacy forms presented by the GGN Institutional Members, Regional AC or GGN National Fora/Committees must be sent to the GGN Secretariat in accordance with the election procedure rules using the established forms published in the GGN Internet site.

Each form must contain the name(s) of the Institutional member or GGN Regional or GGN National Forum/Committee that is nominating the candidate and must include a biographical profile of the latter.

3.1.2 Ineligibilities

The following individuals are ineligible for membership of the Executive Board:

- persons employed by GGN, GGN Regional Networks, GGN National Fora/Committees

- persons employed by UNESCO Secretariat or National UNESCO Committees

“Employee” refers to each individual who carries out functions for GGN, UNESCO, UNESCO Nat. Com. or its Committees and receives remuneration for these functions.

3.2 Candidacy application - Election Committee

Candidacy forms must be filed by the fixed date, which is set by the GGN Secretariat in accordance with an elections calendar adopted by the GGN Executive Board.

This calendar must be published to the GGN website at least 80 days before the GGN General Assembly.

Candidacies must be addressed to the GGN Secretariat. In the case where a candidacy is deemed inadmissible, a decision to that effect must be submitted to the Institutional Member, Regional or National Committee that put forward the candidacy, offering them the opportunity to correct the candidacy application within an allotted time.

Once the GGN Secretariat has examined the admissibility of the candidacy the applications are forwarded to the Elections Committee.

The Elections Committee is comprised of three (3) GGN Members who are not candidates for election to the Executive Board.

They are appointed by the GGN Executive Board for an indefinite term of office.

The Elections Committee is elects its Chairperson.

The GGN General Secretary takes part in the Elections Committee meetings.

The Elections Committee must validate the admissibility of candidacies within no more than 15 days following the filing deadline.

Upon expiry of the allotted time limit to check the candidacy application, the Elections Committee authorizes the GGN Secretariat to publish in the GGN website a list of candidates for membership on the Executive Board.

3.3 Presentation of candidates

A candidate presentation document is published in English and put on GGN’s Internet site.

This document shall contain a presentation of each candidate and a description of the election process.

3.4 Election of Members to the Executive Board

The election of Members of the GGN Executive Board and for the seats of the Executive Board Officers, shall take place during the General Assembly meeting held during the General Conference.

The Members of the GGN Ordinary General Assembly constitute the voting Members.

Voting rights are set forth in the Statutes.

Each Institutional and Individual member has one vote.

Voting Members who are unable to be present on the days of voting may choose to vote by proxy, whereby they may designate another voting Member to vote on their behalf. A voting Member may have a single proxy only for a single absent voting Member.

Only proxy forms established by the GGN Secretariat and published on GGN’s Internet site shall be accepted at the time of voting. Upon presentation of the proxy, the voting Member shall receive the voting ballot of the Member he or she is representing.

The voting ballot for ordinary membership on the Executive Board should set forth the candidates’ names in alphabetical order. In order to be valid, a vote must provide the option to select, by ticking a box, a maximum of five (5) candidates for ordinary membership on the Executive Board.

If this condition is not satisfied, the voting ballot shall be deemed invalid.

In addition, for each seat of the Executive Board Officers, the voting ballot must provide the option to select, by ticking a box, no more than one candidate.

If this condition is not satisfied, the vote for the relevant seat of the Executive Board Officer shall be deemed invalid.

Only voting session pertaining to an election are to be held by secret ballot.

The Elections Committee shall determine the date and time open as well as other procedures for the election and the voting stations.

Candidates for seats of the Executive Board Officers obtaining the largest number of votes shall be elected.

Candidates for seats on the Executive Board obtaining the largest number of votes shall be elected, as prescribed in the GGN Statutes Article 11, Sections 1.

Electoral rules reiterating and specifying these guidelines shall be drawn up by the Executive Board and validated by the Elections Committee for each election.

The voting ballot system may be replaced by any technical means making it possible to use an electronic voting or remote voting system, approved by the Elections Committee and the GGN Secretariat.

The election of Members of the Executive Board is effective from the close of the General Assembly meeting during which they were elected.

Chair persons of the GGN Advisory Committee

The procedures for the election of the Chair persons of the GGN Advisory Committee will follow the article 4 of the GGN Internal Regulations and Procedures Document

4. Advisory Committee

4.4. Election of the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson of the Advisory Committee

The appointed representatives of GGN National Fora/Committees and Affiliated Organizations shall elect the Chairperson, then the Vice-Chairperson during the General Assembly.

The Chairperson’s and Vice-Chairperson’s terms of office will last four (4) years, shall expire upon the election of their successors and can be renewed for another four (4) year term once. At least three (3) months prior to the expiry of the current terms of office, the General Secretary shall write a letter to the Chairperson and the Vice-Chairperson of the Advisory Committee, to Chairpersons of all the GGN National Fora/Committees, calling for candidacies for the offices of Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson of the Advisory Committee.

At least two (2) months prior to the expiry of the current terms of office, the General Secretary shall write a letter to the Chairperson and the Vice-Chairperson of the Advisory Committee, to Chairpersons of all the GGN National Fora/Committees, calling for candidacies for the offices of Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson of the Advisory Committee.

The General Secretary must receive the candidacies no later than 40 days before the election date as set forth in the call for candidacies. The General Secretary shall submit the names of the candidates, together with any biographical profiles, to the Members of the Advisory Committee at least one (1) months before the election is to be held.

As an exception to the previous provisions, candidates wishing to run in the election for Vice-Chairperson shall also be able to come forward during the General Assembly, at the close of the result announcements for the elections of the Executive Board and of Chairperson of the Advisory Committee.

The candidate for each office having received the largest number of votes shall be declared elected, provided that he or she obtains more than 50% of the votes in the first voting round. If no candidate obtains more than 50% of the votes, a second voting round is to be organized between only the two candidates having received the highest number of votes in the first voting round. At the conclusion of the second voting round, the candidate having received the majority shall be declared elected. The elected Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson shall take office once the results of their election have been declared.

16th September 2021
The GGN Executive Board