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BoardTerms OneYearorLonger?

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An interest in helping victims of Katrina motivated my husband and me to recently attend American Red Cross disaster relief training. We learned that volunteers going to the affected areas had to be available for three weeks. To get a reasonable return on the investment required to transport people to the gulf states and prepare them to be productive, a shorter volunteer term was not feasible. Similarly, there is a significant investment in preparing new board members to contribute to their organizations. Many board members say it took them two years to have a deep enough understanding of the organization and their role to fully participate in various board matters. While some legislation dictates board terms of only one year, term length often remains a choice for the organization to set in its by-laws. When organizations have one year board terms, all board positions are up for re-election annually. This exposes the organization to the risk of complete board member turnover. Such an inexperienced board would not likely provide quality organizational leadership. Other organizations have two, three, or four year terms. Some of these organizations also expose themselves to turnover risk as all the seats are up for re-election at the same time. However, most stagger their term expiry dates. If the term is three years, one-third of the board members terms expire every year. This reduces the organizational risk as one-third of the board has at least two years of experience, one-third has at least one year of experience, and no more than one-third are greenhorns. The three- or four-year term organizations ensure that they have some board members who are past the two-year orientation stage and equipped to provide leadership to the organization. A four-year commitment feels quite long to many prospective board members, so more organizations select the three-year term option.

WhatYouCanDo
1. Discuss with your board the preferred length of term for your board members and the number of board members whose terms will expire each year. 2. Compare your preference to your by-laws and your current practices. 3. If there are differences between your preference and your current by-laws, investigate if you can change your by-laws and implement the most effective term length for your organization.

BoardTermsOneYearorLonger?

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