Duties of Committee Chairs

[Willie Watson]

In our organization we have a Fundraising Committee and the chair of that committee is appointed by the President of our organization. Our bylaws only list the duties of the Fundraising Committee and nothing is said about the duties of any committee chair. If we want to require the Fundraising Committee Chair to be bonded, cannot that be done by adopting a standing rule to that effect or does that have to be placed in the Bylaws. Note: our Bylaws are already too long and we don’t want to encumber them with things that can legitimately be adopted with a standing rule. Thanks for your attention to this matter!

[Joshua Katz]

Qualifications for office must be in the bylaws.  

[Richard Brown]

1 minute ago, Joshua Katz said:

Qualifications for office must be in the bylaws.  

I agree, but would that be a true qualification for office? And is a committee chairman truly an officer? And, since the president appointments the chairman, could he require being bonded as a condition of being appointed? 

I agree that it is better such a provision be in the bylaws, but I'm not convinced that it must be.

[Joshua Katz]

4 minutes ago, Richard Brown said:

I agree, but would that be a true qualification for office? And is a committee chairman truly an officer? And, since the president appointments the chairman, could he require being bonded as a condition of being appointed? 

 

I found myself stumbling on these, and so stated the rule and left the analysis to the questioner's organization.  I think we previously discussed on this forum the question of whether a committee chairman is an officer.  If I recall correctly, I thought it wasn't, but the majority opinion seemed to be that qualifications for committee chairs must be in the bylaws.  I also see what you're getting at by asking if it's a qualification for office, as opposed to something an incumbent must do.  On that, I'm inclined to call it a qualification.  Clearly, the President could, himself, impose any informal conditions he chose.  I'd think a greater degree of stability would be desired in this matter, though.