---
Title: XSF Voting Procedure
Url: about/xsf/voting-procedure
aliases:
    - "/about/xsf/voting-procedure.html"
layout: single_xsf
---

The XMPP Standards Foundation holds official votes at least 5 times a year: 4 times (January, April, July, October) to vote on accepting new and renewing members, once (in September) to elect the XSF Board of Directors and the XMPP Council, and optionally at special meetings called by the members.

### Meeting Announcements

The regularly scheduled meetings of the XSF are called by the [Secretary](/about/xsf/people) of the XSF and officially announced on the [members@xmpp.org](https://mail.jabber.org/mailman/listinfo/members) mailing list. The meeting must be announced at least 10 days before the meeting date. For details, see the XSF Bylaws.

In addition to the regularly scheduled meetings, the members may call for a special meeting at any time through discussion on the members@xmpp.org list. These meetings too are subject to the 10-day rule.

### Voting Process

Most XSF members vote via proxy rather than attending the scheduled meeting. This makes life much easier for all concerned. The proxy voting happens by chatting with “MemberBot” [memberbot@xmpp.org](xmpp:memberbot@xmpp.org). MemberBot’s roster is maintained by the Secretary of the XSF so that only XSF members are allowed to chat with the bot.

XSF members can begin the voting process by sending a random message to MemberBot (e.g., “hello”). The bot will then send you a series of questions about the current topics, asking you to vote yes or no to each one.

### Counting the Votes

The votes are counted by the Secretary, who affirms the results of all elections, announces them in the meeting, and posts the results on the XSF website and to the members@xmpp.org list.
