Another element that falls on the voting membership is not to select candidates based on charisma, age, or professional capacity.

There's plenty of people who instinctively REJECT a candidate because they are twenty plus years younger. Not based on merits, just out of disdain for the younger generation. Likewise, there are many people easily won over by friendly, happy people who have no leadership or management skills.

Lastly, don't vote for the railroader, lawyer, CPA, CEO, et al, under the assumption the organization automatically reaps benefits from his/her professional skill set. That may happen in some cases but I've seen it go just the opposite -- the railroader on pool freight will never be around, the CPA won't have a moment of free time during tax season, the CEO is either very busy or travels frequently, and so on...

You need people with predictable work/family schedules who actually have spare time. I know it seems painfully obvious but that's frequently overlooked.