Well to my opinion, it think the source of merits in the local board is an opened application for every qualified members of the forum who're active on the local board which may be directly or indirectly a competition amongst applicants but let's not hold political view to this because even if we do, it'll be of no effort since Theymos will decide himself and this isn't going to be by members votes or decisions rather than the applicants reputation to represent a community in their local board which I think merit historical datas of each applicants would determine who's fit in on the position.
I think technically Theymos will review each profiles specifically on merits earned and how generous you'all been on spreading your sMerits to worth qualified posts deserved to be merited which basically, recycling will be tainted not a generous.