Board term limits?

trag

Tinkerer
Oct 25, 2021
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Term limits are probably impractical for this kind of community organization.

For example, if my local rocketry club had term limits there would probably be some years where they couldn't fill out the officer list. People who have time and inclination to devote attention come and go, but I don't believe you can count on there being a surplus of them.

I may be completely wrong.

I have been before.
 
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Mr. Fahrenheit

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Founder
Sep 2, 2021
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Hi there, I did not see if there were term limits on the elected positions. Is there? or can a sitting elected infividual be perpetually voted back into their position?

regards,

When you mentioned term limits, you are referring to the same person not being allowed on the board after X period of time?

I think not being allowed due to a rule will likely not work out well as trag mentions.

As of today we have established the first board (of which I am not a member) which will serve until Oct 31 2022. There are 7 positions.

To be transparent (which is what TD is all about, top level transparency), we organized as a group in July. We spent the time between July and October deciding on the name, logos, funding model for the interim, hosting platform, and getting the site up and running. We had interim positions (Steve from Mac84 was iPresident) and people were serving in unofficial roles. Our focus was to launch the site as soon as possible.

As a result, the official board of directors wasn’t established for the launch date it was a few days later. Our focus was on launching.

So as of today there aren’t any formal rules or anything in regards to that. The board has been tasked to establish the guidelines and rules for board members, elections, nominations, positions, limits, etc over the next 10 or so months. Once the community is more established and we are closer to the end of Northern Hemisphere summer, this will become solidified.

The overall consensus when the group was formed was to not have people in charge for great lengths of time, and to open up opportunities for community members to become involved and serve as well.

I hope this is a detailed enough answer for you without being overwhelming in content reply.

TL;dr Nothing is formalized yet.
 

Certificate of Excellence

Active Tinkerer
Nov 1, 2021
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Term limits are probably impractical for this kind of community organization.

For example, if my local rocketry club had term limits there would probably be some years where they couldn't fill out the officer list. People who have time and inclination to devote attention come and go, but I don't believe you can count on their being a surplus of them.

I may be completely wrong.

I have been before
Well, I can tell you that the previous HOA that I was a part of had 71 units, some single owner, others dual ownership, so lets say a population of 140 folks (so extremely small) with instituted 4 year limits on the board. Different from govt terms in that it was not 4 years and you are out like a Pres or VP, but you could only run for the same position every four years (effectively each position for one year).

In application, what happened (usually due to the limited size of our small community) was that board members would run in four year stints going from secretary to treasurer to VP to Pres. This ultimately worked pretty well for our community as it created strategic stability, cycling board members participated in all roles & duties during their tenure (so a broad, shared knowledge base), but also allowed new owners to run each year and for others (like myself when I moved out) to move on after four years if we chose. My friend Victoria has been on the board for almost 8 years now (took a couple years break).

So, term limits or term structure can be addressed in different ways or not. I can definitely see some troll making a stink about the claim of "being democratic" and then re-electing the same person or people year after year after year into the same positions. Anyhow, some thoughts on the subject.
 
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Certificate of Excellence

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The overall consensus when the group was formed was to not have people in charge for great lengths of time, and to open up opportunities for community members to become involved and serve as well.

I hope this is a detailed enough answer for you without being overwhelming in content reply.

TL;dr Nothing is formalized yet.
If this is the case, then it is my opinion that it is the boards duty to codify this sentiment in rule and action. As I stated above, there are many ways to do this that can best fit this community, it's size etc. and can be ammended as the community grows and evolves.

Another model that may be helpful to look at should the board choose to is the traditional Co-op model of democratically elected board members (policy governance model). My local coop is set up as 3, three year terms, 2, two year terms, and 1 one year term comprised of all of the typical positions ie: pres/VP/sec/Treas/chairs/etc.

So the concept of board structure/terms development is inherently flexible, is designed to best suit the community, can be amended as it grows and as the community has rules and regs that we must adhere to, so does the board as it is (in theory anyhow) of the community it governs per TD aligning to democratic process.
 
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ScutBoy

Administrator
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Sep 2, 2021
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Northfield, MN USA
If this is the case, then it is my opinion that it is the boards duty to codify this sentiment in rule and action. As I stated above, there are many ways to do this that can best fit this community, it's size etc. and can be ammended as the community grows and evolves.

Agreed. We are getting ready for our first formal board meeting, and getting this work done is certainly part of our duties. We're still painting the trim and planting the flowers around here, but we know that's a task :)
 

Mac84

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Sep 4, 2021
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Yes, as others have mentioned our priority was to launch and get things started. It was impossible to solidify the structure and rules of these processes without having some of our vacant roles filled.

Now that the board is populated there are a bunch of things that we're currently discussing and this will no doubt be one of them. When we have something to announce we'll be sure to share. (y)
 

Certificate of Excellence

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I understand the work flow & prioritization that had taken place to get this beast up & running. That is why I am bringing it up now. With a solidified board, It is a fitting time to address the duration of your indentured servitude to us 🙂