I hope everyone’s summer has been great so far. I want to use this Board Corner to remind everyone that nominations for the Board of Directors and the Nominations and Election Committee (NEC) are open. I truly hope you will consider serving the AIR membership by helping to steer the organization and to discuss some ways you can further engage with the IR/IE community.

One of the Board’s focuses last year was exploring how we could attract more members to volunteer for these important roles. The Ad Hoc Committee on AIR Volunteer Leadership Pathways spent a considerable amount of time discussing this topic and made recommendations. A summary of the work will be included in the Committee’s report will be included in the AIR Annual Report (slated to be published in September), AIR and the board have already enacted several of those recommendations.

For example, during the AIR Forum in May, several current and past Board members recorded videos describing why they chose to serve and the benefits they gained from it. Look for those videos to be posted soon on AIR’s website. Also, to help reduce the financial barriers to attend and travel to the annual Forum each year for Board members, we enacted a travel stipend to offset the cost for Board members whose organizations aren’t able to offer that support.

The Executive Office and the Board also used the AIR Forum as an opportunity to connect with the volunteer leaders of AIR’s Affiliated Organizations (AO), as we know this is one (often low cost) way for IR/IE professionals from under resourced offices to engage with the IR/IE community. AIR staff and Board members set up and attended roundtable discussions with AO leaders during the Forum to share ideas and practices for how to keep AOs thriving. As a result, AIR staff is setting up a discussion board on AIR Hub for AO leaders to continue this collaborative discussion. Additionally, as a reminder to the AOs, AIR staff will post your event information on the main AIR website at AO and Community Events | AIR. Simply send your event information to communications@airweb.org to have it posted.

Speaking of resources for more under-resourced IR offices to stay engaged within the AIR community, I want to highlight the AIR Hub group Single-Person / Small IR Offices. It is a very active group with 338 members and 249 discussions to date. It is a great resource to get advice from colleagues in similar situations. If you haven’t joined AIR Hub, I would recommend doing so at https://hub.airweb.org/home.

All these actions are intended to lower the barriers for you to engage with AIR and consider volunteering with the organization, including in a leadership position on the Board or NEC. The more input we have from all of our members the better AIR continues to be.

I truly hope you will consider nominating yourself or one of your colleagues for AIR leadership. If you want more information about the nomination process and what the Board role is like, you can find it on AIR’s site at AIR Governance Leadership Opportunities.

Thank you everyone.