Chair vacancy

[Guest Peggy Hossli]

We are a small retirement community...our board term is one-year beginning each November.  Our previous Chair had to resign in June due to illness; the Co-Chair filled the position...the Co-Chair has been vacant since June.  The Chairman and Treasurer are coming off & do not want to serve another term.  The nominations for Chair & Co-Chair were declined by four people, as was the Treasurer. 

 

Since there were no "takers" for these positions, the owner of the community contacted different residents to ask if they would fill these positions.  No one wanted the Chair.  Two residents agreed to serve as Co-Chair & one agreed to serve as Treasurer.

 

Can we run our Board without a Chairman/Chairperson?  If not, can the owner serve as the Chair?  Would that be a conflict of interest?  Can there be two Co-Chairs? 

 

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

[jstackpo]

In the order you asked...

 

Yes, you can run your Board without a regularly elected chairman,  You just elect a chair pro tem for each meeting.  He/she presides at the meeting, but has none of the extra-meeting authority of an elected chairman.

 

RONR doesn't define "conflict of interest" as you use the term.  Any rules about that would have to be in your bylaws.

 

Two "co-chairs"?  Only if the bylaws authorizes them.

You might also consider WHY no one wants to be chairman. Perhaps you're asking too much of that position. Perhaps the past chairs have made the job appear more difficult than it has to be. Perhaps the members are making it harder on the chair than they should.

Perhaps the board should be doing more. After all, the only essential role of the chair is to preside at meetings. Some or all administrative responsibilities could be delegated to, or distributed among, the board members.
 

[Edgar Guest]

Can there be two Co-Chairs?

 

Perhaps you're confusing co-chairs (where there are, of course, more than one), with a chair and a vice-chair?

[Richard Brown]

Can we run our Board without a Chairman/Chairperson?  If not, can the owner serve as the Chair?  Would that be a conflict of interest?  Can there be two Co-Chairs?

 

Nothing in RONR requires that officers be members of the organization.  Any such requirement would be in your bylaws.  It is up to your membership to decide if it wants the owner to be Chairman if your bylaws don't require that officers be members.

 

RONR frowns on having co-chairs, as do most of the parliamentarians who post on here.  It blurs the lines of authority.

[Guest Guest]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

[Guest Guest]

I was informed last evening that we do not have by-laws, only BOD Guidelines which state the purpose, responsibilities & duties of the officers & committees.   Also, when meetings are held & how the agenda should be followed.

 

I (one of the two incoming co-chairs this November) recommended that we need to work on writing a set of by-laws as soon as we come on.  We're all new to this so I apologize for stumbling along for answers.

 

1)  Do we need a By-Laws Committee? 

2)  If so, can the new board choose the committee outside the meeting or should we ask for volunteers from the residents at our first meeting in November?

3)  Or can the new board write the by-laws without a committee? 

4)  Do the BOD Guidelines go away once the By-Laws are in place?

 

Thank you for your guidance & knowledge!  You're all great!

[Timothy]

While it is good to have a committee to work on this kind of stuff, the board could do it, or for that matter, an individual could develop a set of bylaws and present it to the membership. The advantage of the committee is that it gets more people involved in the process, so it is more likely the bylaws will be approved.

 

Since it appears your BOD Guidelines are what you're using as your existing bylaws, I would suggest looking to them for a better understanding of what powers your board has, but it would be better for a committee to be elected by the membership at your next meeting.

 

If the membership adopted the BOD Guidelines, they don't just go away when the bylaws are in place, but the bylaws will likely include things that supersede the BOD Guidelines. If all of the guidelines are superseded, then you can lay them aside and forget about them. But if there happens to be something covered in the guidelines that isn't covered in the bylaws, then you would still go by what the guidelines say. If you want to make sure that the guidelines go away, then make a motion to rescind the guidelines.

[Guest Peggy Hossli]

Great, thanks!