The Board of the Society has ultimate responsibility for its governance and administration.
The Board consists of 15 members, 12 elected every other year by the membership using the Single Transferable Vote. Up to three members of the Board can then be co-opted. The current Board was elected in 2023.
Board Members are the legal Directors of the company, with collective responsibility for ensuring that the organisation is legally compliant. The Board, in conjunction with senior staff, sets the Society’s strategic direction, ensures accountability for the Society’s performance and that the Society’s financial affairs are managed with probity and integrity.
Members of the Board elect three of their group to act as Officers and one to act as the Chair.
The Board meets four times a year. It is made up of 12 members who are elected every other year and serve for a two-year term. All fully paid-up members are allowed to stand for election and to vote. A further three can be co-opted on to the Board.
The Board provides creative challenge and independent scrutiny on issues such as strategy, planning and business performance and it works with the senior staff team to ensure that high standards of governance are upheld.
The Board meets 4 times a year in central London (expenses are reimbursed). Members of the Board are also the Directors of the company, with collective responsibility for ensuring that the organisation is legally compliant. The Board:
There are 12 places on the Board, and elections take place every two years with all seats on the Board up for election. Candidates are voted in by the Single Transferable Vote (STV) method.
Board members have a central role to play in deciding the key priorities for the Society.
It’s an important job and we need members with the right balance of ideas, skills, and experience. This is a special opportunity – available only to members – to help shape the Society’s agenda and to inject energy and enthusiasm into the job of building a better democracy in Britain.
Board members can bring invaluable experience and perspectives from all walks of life.
As the governing body of a rapidly expanding national campaign and research organisation, the Board needs active and engaged members – particularly those with some of the following attributes:
Lynn Henderson Chair
Lynn is a senior national officer at the Public and Commercial Services Union, the UK’s largest trade union for government workers where she heads up the Organising, Campaigning, Equalities and Learning teams. Lynn also chairs Politics for the Many – the trade union campaign for electoral reform and is the chair of the project board of the Jimmy Reid Foundation, a think tank for radical political thinking, based in Scotland.
Amy Dodd Vice Chair – Management
Amy previously served on the Board and was chair of the Electoral Reform Society from 2012-2016. She has worked in politics on everything from local election campaigns to national referendums, including helping to lead the Labour Yes to AV campaign. Amy has also worked for many years in international development, focusing on how to mobilise the resources needed to finance a fairer, greener and better future for all. Her experience includes leading a policy and advocacy network of UK organisations advocating for more and better aid, in think tanks and, currently, as Global Policy Director for development economics at the ONE Campaign.
Caroline Osborne Deputy Chair – Campaigns and Research
Caroline has been working in the democracy sector since 2018 and has been with Labour For a New Democracy since the campaign launched. She has always been passionate about electoral reform – after years of campaigning on other issues she was delighted to be able to join the campaign for the one issue that she believes is the starting point for a society that works for all of us.
Caroline is an active Labour member and has stood as a candidate in local elections on numerous occasions. She has held roles within my CLP including Chair and Equalities Officer. She is a committed trade unionist holding roles of branch equalities officer and South East regional committee rep.
Victor Chamberlain Honorary Treasurer
Victor previously served on the Council between 2017-21. Victor is a local councillor in the London Borough of Southwark and has served as the Leader of the Opposition since 2022. Victor has a decade of experience as a local councillor in London and Manchester and serves as a Board Member at the Local Government Association. Victor is the Head of Communications for a Council owned housing development company in East London. Victor has previously worked for the Liberal Democrats’ association of councillors, parliamentary party and party HQ.
Andrew Copson
Andrew Copson has over twenty years of leadership experience in civil society leadership roles, currently employed as the Chief Executive of Humanists UK. A Chartered Fellow of the CMI and the CIPD, with a focus on leadership and culture, Andrew was awarded an OBE in 2025 for services to the non-religious. He is a Sunday Times bestselling author and dedicated advocate for human rights, democratic reform, and an open society.
Kezia Dugdale
Kezia is the Associate Director of the Centre for Public Policy at the University of Glasgow. Having served as an MSP, Leader of Scottish Labour and more recently as Director of the John Smith Centre, Kezia brings with her a wealth of experience in law-making and public policy. She leads the Centre’s external engagement activity, providing an important bridge between the University, policy makers and the communities they serve.
Beyond her working life, Kezia is a trustee of Shelter where she chairs Shelter Scotland, a member of the Oversight Board of “The Promise”
Chris Finlayson
Chris previously served on the ERS Board from 2015-2019, having a long-standing interest in political and electoral reform, and having been an active supporter of the Society’s campaigns of recent years. In life, he is a Senior Lecturer at Aberystwyth University, and an enthusiastic supporter of the great progress being made with STV in Wales at both local and national levels.
Chris is politically independent and a non-partisan advocate for the end of the thoroughly outdated and failed concept of FPTP. He is a strong supporter of democratic reform of the House of Lords; striving to help keep such reform further up the agenda, both in terms of the Society’s aims, and in wider lobbying.
Frances Foley
Frances is the Deputy Director of Compass, where she works on strategy, alliance-building, organising and growing the organisation. She has a background in citizens’ assemblies and participatory democracy and has been involved in democratic reform campaigns for over a decade. She has a particular interest in how organising at ground level can link up with national campaigns, and how we can energise and enable people to build power at the local level, to give people a different experience of what democracy can be.
Sarah Lewis
Sandy Martin
Sandy is a Suffolk County Councillor where he is Labour spokesperson for transport and the environment. He is also Chair of the Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform and a member of the Socialist Environment and Resources Association Executive. He served as MP for Ipswich 2017-2019 and Shadow Minister for Waste & Recycling 2018 – 2019.
Dame Joan Ruddock