Dear community,

The deadline to apply for a ballot and apply for candidacy is fast approaching. Extended to next Sunday, the deadline to apply for a ballot is now December 26, 2025, End of Day (EoD), Anywhere on Earth (AoE). It is also the deadline to submit for candidacy for the board of directors.

Eligibility to vote

Since we made our initial announcement, one of the most frequently asked questions has been what determines eligibility for participating in the election. Participation in the election is open to any member of Sugar Labs, and the eligibility requirements for membership are published on https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Members. The main gist, however, is that you’ve made a contribution to Sugar Labs. According to our definition, such a contribution “may be code, documentation, translations, maintenance of project-wide resources, running a Sugar deployment, or other non-trivial activities which benefit Sugar Labs”.

If you’ve made such a contribution to Sugar Labs, you are eligible as a member, and, as a member, you may vote. Also, if you’re not a member or unsure about your status, we still encourage you to submit an application for a ballot. We will then determine your membership eligibility based on your publicly visible contributions.

More on membership and voting eligibility

If you applied for a ballot last year, you do not need to apply again this year. However, it wouldn’t hurt to reapply this year.

If you didn’t apply for a ballot last year, even if you’ve made contributions in the past, you will need to reapply in order to receive a ballot.

And if it’s been a while since you’ve made a contribution, we encourage you to join us on our main Matrix channel at https://matrix.to/#/#sugar:matrix.org and follow us on GitHub at https://github.com/sugarlabs/. These two channels are currently the most active for coordinating contributions.

Receive your ballot

We encourage you to vote. The application to receive your ballot, due by the End of Day (EoD), Anywhere on Earth (AoE), December 26, 2025, is here: https://forms.gle/2F5PjLHZpzPq2ssL7

Running for a board position

For those of you who would like to run for a board position, you will need to add your name and statement to the list on https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/2026-2027-candidates. If you need any technical assistance with the wiki, please contact elections@sugarlabs.org.

If you’ve made sustained and significant contributions this year, we highly encourage you to consider running for the board. As of this writing, there are only three candidates, which is the same number as the open seats. Since the board shapes the future of Sugar Labs, we would like to have candidates who have shown a commitment to Sugar Labs’s values of Constructionist education through free/libre/open source software development.

Candidates should read and understand the terms of the Sugar Labs Inc.'s Bylaws, as well as any domestic and international laws governing participation in a US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit board.

Election timeline

The updated timeline of the election is planned as follows, with a deadline to receive ballot applications for the End of Day (EoD), Anywhere on Earth (AoE), December 26, 2025, and a deadline to vote for the end of day on January 17, 2025.

Again, we encourage you to take the first step and apply for a ballot via our application form, and we look forward to your involvement.

Best wishes,

Safwan Sayeed, Maintainer at Sugar Labs and 2025 Elections Volunteer Coordinator

P.S. If you are interested in volunteering to assist with the next election in that fall of 2026, please contact volunteering@sugarlabs.org with your interest.