Chris Nuttall
EF5
In the case of ST, I see no reason why members can't nominate other members and the members who have the majority of support through this nomination process could then be discussed by Tim and the rest of the current mod team who will ultimately vote in who actually gets the spots. Along the way, if a member is nominated who does not want to do it or has time constraints, they simply PM a mod and tell them and their name is dropped.
I believe this is the way it was done last time. Tim V. posted a thread calling for those who were interested in the job and for nominations. I don't know how the selection process went after that, as I was not privy to it.
There was an emphasis to try select a staff that would represent various aspects of the ST community. Here's the thread announcing when the current staff took over:
http://stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=17541