What we do Our work Get Involved
Close
    Search for HOT projects, news, people and jobs.
News — 11 June, 2019

Welcome HOT’s New Voting Members for 2019

We are excited to announce 38 new HOT Voting Members! Each year, existing HOT voting members nominate new key contributors from our community to become Voting Members and act as local representatives of HOT’s global network.

One of HOT’s biggest strengths is our large and diverse volunteer community, which has been growing in size and experience since 2010. Our voting members epitomise the best of this community, taking a leading role in guiding our organisation and network towards putting people on the map and supporting the Sustainable Development Goals.

Core to HOT’s values is that our community has a key role in how the organisation and network functions. Voting members have a special responsibility to represent our volunteers, run activities in their countries and help us govern by making key organisational decisions, such as who will serve our board.

Voting members represent a broad organisational and geographical spectrum. They come from organisations that span the humanitarian and development sectors, from partners such as the Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to the World Bank and United Nations, as well as private companies and individuals. Based in 33 different countries – from Burkina Faso to Togo – Voting Members provide a strong connection to the places where we work, whether that is through supporting our disaster mapping or linking HOT with the local networks in times of crisis and need.

See the full list of voting members.

In 2015, Voting Member Nama Raj Budhathoki of Kathmandu Living Labs led our response effort to the Nepal Earthquake. Kathmandu Living Labs was already part of the HOT community and had been working on OpenStreetMap for over a year prior to the earthquake. Through their grassroots local network and experience in the country, coupled with Nama’s strong connection to the HOT Global Team as a Voting Member, the community successfully led the global volunteer response from Nepal.

This year we welcome new members, such as Willy Franck Sob, who leads OpenStreetMap Cameroon, one of HOT’s 2019 Grantees. Another new member, Dorica Mugusi, is an Assistant Project Manager at Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team in Tanzania. Over the last year, she managed a project to identify villages in rural Tanzania for electrification, as well as the METEOR project activities in Tanzania, which aims to develop an innovative application of Earth Observation (EO) technologies to improve the understanding of disaster exposure of buildings. Find out more about all our Voting Members.

What do Voting Members do?

  • Co-chair working group meetings

  • Vote for the Board of Directors

  • Only voting members can run for the HOT Board of Directors

  • Nominate and vote on new Voting Members

  • Lead remote and local activities such as mapathons and disaster response activations

  • Serve as key focal points for HOT in their country

We look forward to all our Voting Members supporting us in our mission to make sure everyone is counted, map data is accessible and used, and everyone can engage and contribute to the map. From everyone at HOT, welcome aboard!