What does it mean if the president is the chief executive officer of the club?

[user]

Our club constitution states that the club president is the chief executive officer of the club. What does that mean? What powers/rights does that statement grant them?

Thanks

[jstackpo]

Is the CEO a paid employee of the club?

[Richard Brown]

7 hours ago, user said:

Our club constitution states that the club president is the chief executive officer of the club. What does that mean? What powers/rights does that statement grant them?

Thanks

It means he has whatever rights, powers, and duties are specified in your Constitution and by-laws. RONR does not get into any administrative duties of the president or other officers. RONR is concerned only with those duties as they relate to conducting meetings. Any administrative rights, duties, and powers of the president must be spelled out in your own governing documents and rules.

[Josh Martin]

8 hours ago, user said:

Our club constitution states that the club president is the chief executive officer of the club. What does that mean? What powers/rights does that statement grant them?

In and of itself, I don’t think it grants them anything.

“All of the duties of the presiding officer described above relate to the function of presiding over the assembly at its meetings. In addition, in many organized societies, the president has duties as an administrative or executive officer; but these are outside the scope of parliamentary law, and the president has such authority only insofar as the bylaws provide it.” (RONR, 11th ed., pg. 456)

In other words, the bylaws should define what this title means in the context of your organization and what powers and duties it is intended to grant.

[user]

11 hours ago, jstackpo said:

Is the CEO a paid employee of the club?

No

[user]

9 hours ago, Josh Martin said:

In and of itself, I don’t think it grants them anything.

“All of the duties of the presiding officer described above relate to the function of presiding over the assembly at its meetings. In addition, in many organized societies, the president has duties as an administrative or executive officer; but these are outside the scope of parliamentary law, and the president has such authority only insofar as the bylaws provide it.” (RONR, 11th ed., pg. 456)

In other words, the bylaws should define what this title means in the context of your organization and what powers and duties it is intended to grant.

The document does state certain rights the president gets (e.g. preside over executive committee meetings). However it never uses the term "chief executive officer" anywhere else in the club constitution (it doesn't define what privileges that provides). You're saying that the statement that the club president is the chief executive officer of the club actually does not grant anything? Any idea why it's written?

[user]

10 hours ago, Richard Brown said:

It means he has whatever rights, powers, and duties are specified in your Constitution and by-laws. RONR does not get into any administrative duties of the president or other officers. RONR is concerned only with those duties as they relate to conducting meetings. Any administrative rights, duties, and powers of the president must be spelled out in your own governing documents and rules.

Ok. Got it. Well, it never uses the term "chief executive officer" anywhere else in the club constitution (it doesn't define what privileges that provides). It does list some standard privileges the president gets.

[Atul Kapur]

I have seen this in organizations that do not have a separate, paid staff person who is the CEO (aka "Executive Secretary" or "Executive Director" in RONR). Depending on the size and purpose of the association, they have some staff but with the elected leaders performing the roles of management. It sounds like that is the situation here. 

You may find pages 464-5 helpful as they outline the role of an Executive Secretary and the work that such a person would do. If your president is your CEO, most of those duties would fall onto their shoulders.

[Joshua Katz]

3 hours ago, user said:

You're saying that the statement that the club president is the chief executive officer of the club actually does not grant anything? Any idea why it's written?

Well, I'd be a little cautious here. So far as parliamentary procedure is concerned, it doesn't say much of anything. Everything a CEO does outside of a meeting is, by definition, not part of parliamentary procedure - RONR is about the decision-making, not the executing. However, it will likely have legal ramifications, particularly as concerns the appearance to others outside the organization that the CEO has traditional powers of a CEO. You'll need to consult an attorney for more details, though.