The NPCA Report on Improving Governance As requested by the Presidents' Forum last summer in Portland OR, the NPCA Board has studied ways to improve its performance. The report of this effort is now available and will be discussed in Chicago, August 5-8. The proposals, if approved, would reduce the Board's size and change its composition, via an amendment to NPCA Bylaws to be placed before the NPCA membership in the fall. Read the executive summary and the supporting material including NPCA's Challenges Today and Tomorrow, what RCPVs say about the changes and then leave your own comments. |
By Admin1 (admin) (pool-141-157-22-73.balt.east.verizon.net - 141.157.22.73) on Saturday, July 31, 2004 - 1:16 pm: Edit Post |
Improving NPCA's Governance: Appendix A - Text of Executive Committee’s Recommendations
Improving NPCA's Governance: Appendix A - Text of Executive Committee’s Recommendations
Appendix A
Texts of Executive Committee’s Recommendations
as posted on NPCA’s Board of Directors’ listserv, 5/4/04
The Executive Committee voted on April 5th to accept the recommendations on how to fulfill the Board’s mandate, during the Winter Meeting, to reduce Board size down to 21 or below. Following are excerpts from the minutes.
1. Board Restructuring
The recommendation of the Governance Committee is that we have a range of 15-21, with an ideal board of 19 members, and have at least one more elected representative than appointed. This decision will be the subject of a Fall by-laws vote by the membership.
The Governance Committee wrote:
Board size and composition should be defined in the bylaws as a range of 15 to 21, with the directors elected by the membership always in a majority of at least one. Elected representatives would be voted upon by members for three-year terms.
The bylaws would NOT specify regional representatives and thus potentially allow at-large representatives if the Board decided to go in that direction after seeking advisory input from the membership (at AGM or via publications/electronic means) and Presidents’ Forum (at annual meeting or via electronic means). Appointed representatives would be nominated and approved by the Board for three-year terms. We recommend abolishing the one-year appointments by the chair, since one year is too short to be functional, and that all appointments be for 3 years.’
2. Recommendations for interim composition
The Governance Committee's recommendation for the new 19-member Board in August 2005 is:
- 9 elected reps
- 1 Presidents’ Forum Coordinator (2-year term to fit biannual conference cycle)
- 9 appointed reps, all eventually for 3-year terms
This would not be stated specifically in the by-laws. It would be introduced in the Fall 2004 special by-laws ballot as the board-approved structure for the new board that would be in effect in August 2005.
The Ex-Com accepted the recommendation of the Governance Committee for the new board in August 2005 as:
Country Regions - 4
- The Americas - 3087 members
- Asia/Pacific - 2713
- Europe, North & East Africa - 2664
- West, Central & Southern Africa – 2705
Geographic Regions - 5
- Northeast - 2606 members
- Mid-Atlantic/Nationwide - 2698
- Southern Tier - 2075
- Upper Midwest - 2815
- West – 3056
Comment: The specific list of states and countries in each region are being refined by the Governance Committee.
3. Transitional Implementation
The Ex-Com voted to accept the recommendation of the Governance Committee regarding the transition plan of the elected and appointed Board Representatives for summer 2004 and 2005 as:
’In order to meet the goal of full implementation of the new structure by August 2005, the Committee approved a transition plan based on staggered elections and appointments. The plan is to stagger 3-year terms so that approximately one-third of the board potentially turns over each year, thus providing continuity and stability. We also urge that the board consider retaining via appointment current board members if any transition to a smaller board size would cause disruption or hardship to the organization.
Spring 2004 - all electeds made aware that their term may only go thru 8/05
Summer 2004 - all appointeds for 8/04 board meeting similarly informed
Spring 2005 - all elected rep positions open (based on 5 geographic and 4 country)
- 3 elected for 1 year thru 8/06 - possibly 2 geographic and 1 country
- 3 elected for 2 years thru 8/07 - possibly 1 geographic and 2 country
- 3 elected for 3 years thru 8/08 - possibly 2 geographic and 1 country
Summer 2005 – NomElec Comm draws up slate of appointeds for board approval in 8/05
- 3 for 1 year thru 8/06
- 3 for 2 years thru 8/07
- 3 for 3 years thru 8/08
NOTE: no one-year appointments by Chair
PF Coordinator elected for 2 years at 8/05 PF (normal schedule)