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A disagreement has come up between my organizations Nominations Committee and its Executive Committee as to which has the final say over the nominees to be included on our annual election ballot. Let me begin by saying that the Nom Cmte has adhered to the bylaws and the policy and procedure manuals. I am serving on a 3-person Nominations Committee to which I and one other member were elected by the membership. The third member is a director who was appointed by the Executive Committee (made up of the 4 officers), with the approval of the Board of Directors. The Nom Cmte elected its chair. We have 6 open board positions to fill. The nominations process is for the Nom Cmte to solicit recommendations for potential nominations from the entire membership and to inquire whether any incumbents, not term-limited, wish to run for reelection. Members may recommend themselves or another member may recommend them. Being recommended doesn't guarantee inclusion on the ballot. Criteria for nomination stated in the bylaws and the policy and procedures manuals are not detailed. The recommendations we received all met the criteria. We received 13 recommendations -- including 3 incumbents -- to fill the 6 director positions. We eliminated 2 leaving us with a possible slate of 11. The last 2 elections have had 12 nominees to fill 6 open director seats, so the number was reasonable. The procedure manual states that the Nom Cmte sends the list of potential candidates to president (copy to Executive Director) for review before finalizing slate, finalizes the slate, confirms with individuals on ballot and sends information to ED and Executive Committee. We sent our proposed slate to the president and ED. The response was the Exec Cmte directed us to remove 2 additional nominees and named the ones we were to remove. We were told all were qualified but the EC didn't think the 2 had enough board experience which is not a stated criteria. None of the EC members made any recommendations. None of the governing documents explicitly state that the EC has final approval of the ballot. The only person named to "review" the ballot is the President before it is finalized. FINALLY, my question is whether the Nom Cmte is free to reject the EC's directive? The Nom Cmte feels it is inappropriate for the EC to ask us to do this. The Nom Cmte chair and the president have discussed with no resolution so far. Any help would be greatly appreciated.