BPA elections Serving you Last issue, Louise Parfitt spoke to Dave Smith about how and when elections to the BPA Council take place. This time, the focus is on the role of the BPA service boards and the upcoming elections for ordinary members to these boards efore we get into the service boards themselves, can you explain a little more about who gets to vote for what at the BPA? B Broadly speaking, when you join as a member you are allocated to a membership group based on your business area of operation (for example, Parking Technology group) and a regional group (for example, Midlands group) depending where you are based geographically. When it comes to voting, its just like parliamentary elections, where people who wish to represent a membership group are elected by the members of that group. In late June, we will hold the elections for the 15 Council seats mentioned in the May edition (see bit.ly/PNJun22E). Where do service boards fit into the BPA governance structure? Our service boards help support the work of the BPA Council and the BPA Board. They do this by discussing the detail and providing real world advice and guidance. There are currently four service boards: Professional Development and Standards (PD&S), Operational Service (OS), Public Affairs and Communications (PAC), and Technology, Innovation and Research (TIR). The latter was formed in 2017 in response to the significant technological changes in our sector. Who makes up the service board? Each board is slightly different in its composition, but there is always a chair, who is elected from and by the BPA Council, plus up to six other BPA Council members. There are also a number of ordinary members drawn from the wider BPA membership. Sometimes, we also invite external stakeholders who have specific skills or knowledge that they can share. For example, the OS Board is made up of the chair, four elected Council members, and then six ordinary members, of whom three work in delivering private parking and three are members of the Safer Parking Scheme. On the PD&S Board, there is the chair, six Council members and seven ordinary members, two of whom are external representatives to bring a wider consumer interest perspective to the table. How is the chair of each service board selected? The BPA Council choses the chair of each of the service boards from existing BPA Council members and they automatically become a BPA Board director, so they can bring all the 46 PN June 2022 pp46-47 Elections.indd 46 24/05/2022 16:50