At the Presidents’ Forum in Portland, OR, last August, the group leadership passed a proposal to reduce the size of the NPCA’s Board to 12 – 18 members. Here is what the Board has decided.
TO ALL GROUP LEADERS:
At the Presidents’ Forum in Portland, OR, last August, the group leadership passed a proposal to reduce the size of the NPCA’s Board to 12 – 18 members. (To read a copy of the proposal or the minutes from that meeting, go to www.rpcv.org and go to the Affiliate Groups/Presidents’ Forum section.) In response, the Board asked the Nominations and Elections Committee to examine the Board’s size and composition, and to return to the full Board at the February 2004 Board meeting with recommendations for improving its effectiveness.
We are pleased to report that the Committee took this task seriously and succeeded in making some bold recommendations to the NPCA Board at the recent Board meeting in Miami. The Board discussed and voted on these recommendations, approving each of them as follows:
BOARD SIZE:
NPCA should reduce the overall size of the Board to a range of 15 – 21 members (down from the current size of 30.) Requires a by-laws change.
This will help ensure a more streamlined and efficient governing body.
BOARD COMPOSITION:
To help ensure that the Board has the needed skill set to advance NPCA, approximately half (7 – 11) of the Board should be elected by the membership, and the remainder (7 – 11) appointed/selected by the Board. Requires a by-laws change.
The elected membership will continue to represent Geographic and Country of Service groups. Currently there is significant disparity between the number of individuals represented by each elected Board member. COS Board members currently represent an average of more than 2000 members eligible to vote for them. Geographic group Board members represent a few more than 1000 members. The current range is one geographic Board member representing 477 members eligible to vote to a COS Board member representing 3206 members eligible to vote. (For a detailed report showing the break-out of these statistics, go to www.rpcv.org. and go to the Affiliate Groups/Presidents’ Forum section)
A new Board configuration would more evenly distribute these numbers to ensure that each elected Board member represents roughly the same number of NPCA members.
COMMITTEE STRUCTURE:
The number of standing Board committees should be reduced to approximately 5. No by-laws change necessary.
This would replace the current structure of 4 Standing Committees, 14 Sub-committees and 1 Task Force. These committees would assist the Board in fulfilling its essential governance roles (Development, Governance, Marketing/Communications, Development/Business, Executive Committee). In addition, any number of “program committees” would serve as technical advisors to the staff to assist in their program responsibilities and thus serve in an advisory capacity to the Board. These committees would not be chaired by Board members, and would make extensive use of Group Leaders and other non-Board members.
LINKS WITH AFFILIATED GROUPS:
To strengthen links with affiliates, the Presidents’ Forum needs to be given a stronger role. Group presidents should meet at least twice if not three times yearly (electronically), since one annual meeting of 2-3
hours is insufficient.
(A Board vote was not necessary for this recommendation, but there was general agreement about the need to strengthen links with NPCA’s Affiliated Groups.)
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PROCESS AND NEXT STEPS
The Committee’s report came about as a result of broad analysis, including interviews with key stake-holders (current and former Board and staff, group leaders and other prominent members of the Peace Corps/NPCA community), and a review of best practices of comparable non-profit organizations. Among the respondents there was some divergence of opinion about how to best organize the Board. However, the Committee reviewed, analyzed and discussed the data gathered and carefully crafted a report reflecting the general themes that emerged around how to shape the governance structure to help bring NPCA forward in its newest phase that will involve expanded activities and greater resources.
It is important to note that these recommendations were made not only in the context of more effective governance for the NPCA, but also of the need to strengthen NPCA’s links with the Affiliate Groups. The Board expressed a commitment to strengthening the role of the Presidents’ Forum including reviving the Presidents’ Forum steering committee, and working to develop the Presidents’ Forum into a body that communicates throughout the year and has more active role in NPCA governance. While recognizing the autonomy of the groups and the value of what the groups accomplish at the local level, the NPCA Board and staff expressed their commitment towards establishing the groups as a true national network.
Please take the time to look at these recommendations and discuss them among your group members and with other group leaders. Having voted to approve these recommendations, the Board and staff are anxious to move forward on developing an implementation plan and getting the proposed by-laws changes out to the membership by ballot. We are very anxious to hear your thoughts on these recommendations, and urge you to provide us with your feedback, questions, etc. There is not yet a specific date as to when changes will occur, but we encourage you to respond over the next six weeks or so to ensure that your feedback is taken into consideration as we move forward.
These are significant changes to how the NPCA Board functions and we believe they will result in a stronger organization. We also believe that they will result in a stronger relationship between the national organization and the affiliate groups. Your input and feedback are critical to ensuring the success of these changes. We invite you to be in touch and we are available to discuss at any time.
Carol Rogers
Thailand 84 -85
Presidents' Forum Coordinator
crogers@rpcv.org
Kevin Quigley
Thailand
President
National Peace Corps Association
kevin@rpcv.org
