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President Elect


Guest Cindy L. Mill

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Some organizations elect their president a year or more in advance of the time he is expected to take office as president.  This person is referred to as the president elect, and usually succeeds automatically to the presidency at the end of the president's term.

 

All this would have to be spelled out in your bylaws in order to be in effect, as would any duties or responsibilities they may have, none of which is laid out in RONR.

 

Personally, I think it's a bad idea.

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Personally, I think it's a bad idea.

 

Me too. A lot can happen in a year (or more?) and you might not want to be locked into your choice of your next president for such a long time.

 

Note, too, that the term "president-elect" can refer to the person who has been elected president but has not yet taken office, as is the case with the U.S. President who's elected in November but doesn't take office until January. During that time he's the "president-elect". But that's not the same as having an office of President-Elect (which is what I assume we're talking about here).

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Also, this is often overlooked:  "When the bylaws of an organization provide for a president-elect, it is usual to provide also that if the president should be absent, or if the office of the president should become vacant between elections, the president-elect shall preside, if present, or shall fill the vacancy. Unless such provision is made, the first vice-president would preside or complete the president's term. It is also customary to provide in the bylaws for some method to fill a vacancy in the office of president-elect, should one occur between elections. It is important to consider these provisions with great care. The bylaws can assign the president-elect specific responsibilities."  RONR (11th ed), p. 457

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The position can give the person some opportunity to attend Board meetings, liaison with the current President and any staff who may report to the President, etc.  Basically the position of 'President-Elect' can be seen as an intern position for the person about to become President.  Although as others have pointed out, any duties and responsibilities would have to be spelled out in the By-laws and perhaps in a year's time (or more) the person is either not as interested in the position or the members may no longer want the person to be President.

 

A much better idea would be for a simple statement in the By-laws that "To be eligible to be nominated and elected as President, a person must have served at least one year on the Board."  That allows a person to have some experience with how the organization is run before being elected President.

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Well, my thought is that if the organization wants the President to have some Board experience, then this would suffice.  It's easier then simply electing a current Board member for the next 10 years and then have someone who has not been on the Board get up and run and then everyone's going "You can't do that."  But Gary you are correct, it is sometimes better to say nothing and let nature take charge so to speak.

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 Quoting RONR: if the office of the president should become vacant between elections, the president-elect shall preside, if present, or shall fill the vacancy [if the bylaws say so].

 

Another bad idea.   The P-E is a "trainee" position and should not have to become president before his time.  That is what the V-P is for -- he (nominally) is selected because he is ready to become president at any time.

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The spinning Ed provides some sensible thoughts.  I don't particularly agree that his second paragraph is a better idea, or even a good one.

 

("B-" , young brave studious one) 

I'm with Mr. Tesser; for one thing, Rev Ed's verbiage runs an outside risk of leaving nobody at all qualified to run for president.

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