Question: I've been thinking about our practice of having a Board Nominating Committee composed of all board members. I do like the control it gives us in choosing who is going to be nominated, but shouldn't the members of the organization be doing the nominating? After all, the members elect us.
Answer: Good on you! You have touched on one of the very sensitive issues relating to board accountability. It is very common for boards to take control of the nominating process. Often it happens by default. There is inadequate organization at the membership level, so the task of finding potential board members for the future falls to the board itself.
But sometimes the board wants that control and in those cases makes no effort to activate a Nominating Committee of the organizations' members.
In my experience I have seen many manipulative moves by boards designed to maintain control of incoming board members by controlling the nominating process. Among the things I've seen:
- The Nominating Committee doesn't alert the members to the process and the deadline for nominations. I've even seen a board "forget" to inform members whom they didn't want to be reelected of the process and deadline.
- The Board will invite departing members to resign just before their term expires so they can circumvent the nominating process by appointing their own choices to fill the unexpired term.
- The Board may create obstacles in the form of limitations of eligibility to prevent unwanted persons from being nominated or elected.
- The Board may leave positions vacant within the authority of the bylaws but then appoint their own selection of people to fill the vacancies they chose not to fill with the election.
- Provide better information on the Board's own nominees than is provided for "other" nominees.
I'm sure there are many more creative ways for a board to control the "quality" of incoming board members.
The more democratic process that I suggest would be to:
- Specify in the bylaws what qualifications are required for all nominees. Accept only nominees with those qualifications.
- Require the Nominating Committee to be made up of members at large within the organization, with a minority of board members (if any) on the committee.
- Allow the Board to make nominations to the Nominating Committee.
- Advise all members of the process and timelines of the nomination and election process so that no one is disadvantaged for lack of information.
As with all other board matters, if the board doesn't hold itself accountable by monitoring its policies and processes and performance, it is very unlikely that anyone else will. This means that abuse within the board can easily become entrenched until in some extreme cases it becomes too late to repair.
So, my answer to your question is a resounding "Yes!" The members of the organization should appoint its own Nominating Committee and control the election process.
Les Stahlke, President
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