Board's authority to do duties of a committee when there is a vacancy in the committee

[Guest Lorraine]

Our group requires a nominating committee prior to our election.   No one volunteered to serve and the president was unable to appoint a chair or committee to do this work.    The board then presented a slate of officers in the place of the nominating committee.   Is this appropriate?  This is a small women's church group and the members are reluctant to volunteer for anything.  I'd appreciate any response to this question.  Thank you.

 

[Gary Novosielski]

No it is not.  The board does not have the authority to nominate candidates.  Add to this the fact that a Nominating Committee normally does not report to the Board, but reports directly to the Membership.  Normally the chair should have no role in appointing the committee, but if your bylaws require it, then the failure of the chair to perform this duty in a timely manner may be a subject of discipline at the appropriate time.

Until then, nominations from the floor should be taken. The "slate" presented by the Board should be ignored by the membership.

[Josh Martin]

On 4/15/2024 at 1:07 PM, Guest Lorraine said:

Our group requires a nominating committee prior to our election.   No one volunteered to serve and the president was unable to appoint a chair or committee to do this work.    The board then presented a slate of officers in the place of the nominating committee.   Is this appropriate?

Technically, no, but it seems to me the same purpose could be accomplished by appointing some or all of the board members as members of the nominating committee.

Alternatively, a board member could simply nominate each of these persons from the floor.

Do your bylaws provide that the President appoints the nominating committee? RONR recommends against this.

On 4/15/2024 at 1:11 PM, Gary Novosielski said:

No it is not.  The board does not have the authority to nominate candidates.  Add to this the fact that a Nominating Committee normally does not report to the Board, but reports directly to the Membership.  Normally the chair should have no role in appointing the committee, but if your bylaws require it, then the failure of the chair to perform this duty in a timely manner may be a subject of discipline at the appropriate time.

Until then, nominations from the floor should be taken. The "slate" presented by the Board should be ignored by the membership.

If there's no deadline for the appointment of the nominating committee, couldn't the President just appoint the board members to the Nominating Committee? And then they'll make the nominations again?

Edited April 15, 2024 at 09:17 PM by Josh Martin

[Gary Novosielski]

On 4/15/2024 at 5:16 PM, Josh Martin said:

Technically, no, but it seems to me the same purpose could be accomplished by appointing some or all of the board members as members of the nominating committee.

Alternatively, a board member could simply nominate each of these persons from the floor.

Do your bylaws provide that the President appoints the nominating committee? RONR recommends against this.

If there's no deadline for the appointment of the nominating committee, couldn't the President just appoint the board members to the Nominating Committee? And then they'll make the nominations again?

I suppose so, but my own recommendation would still be to take nominations from the floor.  The process already has more than the requisite number of board fingerprints all over it.

And I guess it was my sense that some deadline had been crossed, prompting the question.

Edited April 16, 2024 at 12:58 AM by Gary Novosielski