Voting 101 – When, Where, Who and How
When is the next Board elected?
The voting period to select a slate of directors will take place in spring 2025 and end on the 2025 SOCAN annual general meeting. The successful candidates elected to the Board of Directors will be announced the week following SOCAN’s 2025 annual general meeting.
For the 2025 elections, SOCAN has transitioned to a staggered election cycle. This means elections are held every year to elect six new directors to the Board for three-year terms. There are three Writer Directors and three Publisher Directors elected each year.
How long will the new Directors serve?
Each elected director will serve for a three-year term from 2025 to 2028.
Who is eligible to vote in the 2025 election?
All SOCAN Members who received royalties from SOCAN in the 2024 calendar year are eligible to vote.
How are my votes weighted?
Writer members who have received performing right royalties from SOCAN in the 2024 calendar year have one vote, plus one vote for every five hundred dollars, or part of each five hundred dollars, received in the 2024 calendar year that is in excess of the first five hundred dollars received, to a maximum of 20 votes.
Publisher members who have received performing right royalties from SOCAN in the 2024 calendar year have one vote, plus one vote for every thousand dollars, or part of each one thousand dollars received in the 2024 calendar year that is in excess of the first twenty-five hundred dollars received, to a maximum of 10 votes.
Where do members go to vote?
Eligible members can vote exclusively via their SOCAN online account.
How do members vote?
Members can only vote through their SOCAN online account. After logging in, members can select the the VOTE link on the homepage, in order to be redirected to the eBallot voting website for the SOCAN Board elections.
How long do members have to vote?
Voting begins in April and closes May 21st, 2025.
How are votes tabulated?
SOCAN has moved to a staggered term election system. As a result, six director seats are up for election every year. These seats are based on the designations of the incumbent directors previously elected. Below are how the votes are tabulated to elect the three writer directors and the three publisher director seats up for election in 2025.
- Writer Votes:
(i) The writer designated as Audiovisual Music irrespective of region, receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared elected.
(ii) The writer from East with the highest number of votes shall be declared elected, unless this seat was already filled by virtue of item (i).
(iii) The writer from Québec with the highest number of votes shall be declared elected, unless this seat was already filled by virtue of item (i).
(iv) The writer from the West with the highest number of votes shall be declared elected, unless this seat was already filled by virtue of item (i).
The elected Writer members above are to include at least one writer designated as Francophone with the highest number of votes.
In the event that this voting tabulation above does not include at least one Francophone then the Francophone with the next highest votes and with the regional and Audiovisual Music qualifications required under the SOCAN By-laws shall be declared elected.
- Publisher Votes:
(i) The two publishers from the East with the highest number of votes shall be declared elected.
(ii) The publisher from Québec with the highest number of votes shall be declared elected.
The elected Publisher members are to include at least one publisher designated as Francophone with the highest number of votes.
In the event that the voting tabulation above does not include at least one Francophone then the Francophone with the next highest votes and with the regional qualifications required above shall be declared elected.