Board President Issues

[Camilla Keith Rickman]

I belong on a board for a small community theatre.  The President has brought on friends who have a grudge against an employee.  I know of this to be true because the President has told me in the past that they want to get this person fired.  The President also put all of those people on the Personnel Committee and they caught all off guard by wanting to fire him after one of the meetings.  The other board members are kept in the dark and have not been allowed to attend board meetings that the employee has requested and that the President granted. The President will not give direct answers to the board members nor will the President answer any emails from the board or the public who have ask questions pertaining to the matter.  The President has lied about being at a "secretive"  meeting and will not share any of the information with the board members.  The President will not share the vote count on any decisions when it is done by email pertaining to this issue.  We are non profit and our state is at will, so a majority of votes from the board can fire the employee at anytime.  

We are confused and need to know what the appropriate steps are to bring up before our board.

Any information is appreciated!

[J. J.]

Does the board have the authority to hire and fire employees?

 

Edited September 18, 2020 at 12:25 AM by J. J.

[Atul Kapur]

2 hours ago, Camilla Keith Rickman said:

The other board members are kept in the dark and have not been allowed to attend board meetings that the employee has requested and that the President granted.

All board members have the right to attend meetings of the board, unless your bylaws say differently.
Do you perhaps mean board members are not being allowed to attend meetings of the Personnel committee? Non-members of a committee do not have the right to attend a meeting of a committee.

2 hours ago, Camilla Keith Rickman said:

The President will not share the vote count on any decisions when it is done by email pertaining to this issue.

Do your bylaws allow email voting? If not, the votes are not valid, according to RONR.

 

[Richard Brown]

11 hours ago, Camilla Keith Rickman said:

The President will not share the vote count on any decisions when it is done by email pertaining to this issue. 

Assuming that your bylaws do permit email voting,  the president should at least be sharing the vote counts with the board. If she isn’t, and especially if your rules don’t specifically require it, you should perhaps propose a special rule of order or perhaps even an amendment to the bylaws that requires that all email and electronically vote counts be shared with the board.
 

Organizations which permit email Voting frequently require that all email votes be cc’d to all board members so that all board members are aware of exactly what is going on during the Vote. Do you have rules regarding how email votes are conducted? If not, and if they are permitted, then you probably need those rules.
 

If the situation it is as bad as you say it is, it might also be worth considering disciplinary action against the president or even removing her from office. At a minimum, a motion  of censure might be in order.  See frequently asked question number 20 on the main website for some basic information about removing an officer from office.

[Camilla Keith Rickman]

The board does have the authority to fire employees based on the recommendations of the Personnel Committee.

The meetings that I am referring to are not committee meetings.  The employee asked to meet with the board of directors and that was granted by the President.  But, she decided for the board to vote on it and never gave any details on the count.

Our bylaws do not permit email voting or voting by Zoom.  This has been brought into question as well.

[Atul Kapur]

1 hour ago, Camilla Keith Rickman said:

The employee asked to meet with the board of directors and that was granted by the President.

Earlier, you said that some board members were not informed of this meeting or were not permitted to attend. As I said, that violates their rights.

1 hour ago, Camilla Keith Rickman said:

But, she decided for the board to vote on it and never gave any details on the count.

Vote on what?

[Camilla Keith Rickman]

Sorry, she granted the employee to meet with the board.  The board received the email regarding that situation and we were waiting for the date to be set.  But, the President decided to do an email vote on meeting with the employee even though she granted him to meet with us.  We did not receive an email with the final voting results and not everyone replied to her email request.  She was confronted about granting his request and said, “It is what it is”.

[Atul Kapur]

4 hours ago, Camilla Keith Rickman said:

She was confronted about granting his request and said, “It is what it is”.

Any president who would treat an important issue so cavalierly as to say something so uncaring as that deserves the strictest discipline and should be replaced at the first opportunity.

[Gary Novosielski]

Why does the board let the president get away with this behavior?

[Camilla Keith Rickman]

3 hours ago, Gary Novosielski said:

Why does the board let the president get away with this behavior?

Because the President has arranged for three of her co-workers and friends to get on the board.