Executive Committee Elections

Ballot papers have now been sent to Full Members and Congregational Secretaries for the 2025 EC Elections. If you are a member of your congregation, please ask your Secretary for a ballot paper. 

The candidates for the 2025 EC Elections are (there are four open slots):

  • Zac Baker
  • Sarah Benfield
  • Rev Stephanie Bisby
  • Robert Ince
  • Rev Arek Malecki
  • Rev Dr Rob Whiteman
  • Gillian Woolman

Election 2025 FAQs

What is the Executive Committee (EC)?

The EC are the trustees of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches – the charity that supports our denomination in line with our charitable object. The current members are Rev Jo James (Convenor), John Bates (Honorary Treasurer), Sarah Benfield, Rev Laura Dobson, Zac Baker, Jenny Jacobs, and Simon Hall. 

How are they appointed?

We hold elections every two years to appoint four new EC members, who will each serve a term of four years.

All quota-paying members of congregations are eligible to vote in the election, along with Associate Members, Ministers, Honorary Members. Each person only gets one vote. 

How are elections managed?

We work with Popularis, an independent company that manages electoral processes for a range of organisations. We pay them a fee for this. 

The process is overseen by the Electoral Panel, a group of volunteers from the Unitarian movement. Each Electoral Panel member serves for three elections, with one volunteer rotated out at each election to retain knowledge . Current members are Nicola Temple, David Warhurst and Ann Peart. 

We rely on congregational secretaries to ensure that ballot papers are provided to each quota paying member in a congregation; as the GA does not hold a list of individual named congregation members, we cannot provide ballot papers directly. 

When will the elections happen?

The deadline for candidates to stand for election is the 31st January 2025. Ballot papers were sent out to members and congregations in mid-February. Congregations received one ballot per member for whom quota was paid for the last financial year (ending September 2024).

The deadline for ballot papers to be returned to Popularis is 28 March 2025. The results of the election will be announced shortly afterwards. Successful candidates will begin their term from the end of the annual meetings, on 14th April 2025. 

How many candidates will be elected this time?

Four candidates will be elected, in line with the GA’s constitution. 

We are in an unusual situation this year, where there are more than four vacancies on the EC. This is a result of there being fewer than four candidates standing at the last election, and then one of those elected candidates needing to step down from the EC for personal reasons. Co-opted members must stand for elected at the next election to continue.  This means that after the election, the new EC will be able to co-opt additional candidates into the remaining vacancies. 

The GA’s constitution in its current form does not anticipate the situation we find ourselves in this time – even if the full four candidates are appointed in this election, the resulting EC will not be quorate. As such, the EC are putting forward a procedural motion at the Annual Meetings to make a small change to the constitution. The proposed change will allow that EC body to co-opt additional members so that it becomes quorate.