Board elections are an essential part of growing your organization economically and socially and ensuring strong governance. Elections that are competitive and with a high voter participation can prevent a monopoly on power by ensuring that the board members have a variety of expertise, experience and interests to meet the needs of the company.
Your organization’s bylaws provide basic guidelines and legal parameters for how you conduct board voting. Bylaws often define the number of votes needed to elect a particular candidate, the positions that require a vote and how terms can be added, deleted or replaced.
In the majority of member-based organizations, the board of directors regularly votes on issues such as dues, membership tiers, and other perks. However, the primary duty of your board is to ensure that your organization is running efficiently and effectively.
A well-run board election should include nominations, voting for a nominations’ committee and training to assist new members in getting up to speed. This is a good way to build trust among your members and showcase your abilities as a leader.
The nominating committee must carefully examine the list of members to ensure that each candidate meets the qualifications to be able to serve in the office. The board will need to conduct a new election if an elected person later finds out they can’t serve. This is avoided by asking that any member who realizes they are not able to serve, ask to be removed from the list of nominees at the nominating committee meeting.