Читать книгу Nonprofit Kit For Dummies - Stan Hutton, Beverly A. Browning - Страница 72

Typical officer positions of most nonprofit boards include president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. Sometimes the positions of secretary and treasurer are combined into one office. Your state laws may specify which officers are required. Seniority on the board, professional expertise, and skills in negotiating with and listening to others are common traits sought in a board’s leaders. Ultimately, however, the board of directors chooses the officers. They’re usually elected to 2-year terms. The following list outlines the common responsibilities of board officers:

 President (or chairperson): Presides at board meetings, appoints committee chairpersons, works closely with the executive director to guide the organization, and acts as a public spokesperson for the organization (but also may assign this responsibility to the executive director)

 Vice-president (or vice-chairperson): Presides at board meetings in the president’s absence and serves as a committee chairperson as appointed by the president

 Secretary: Maintains the organization’s records, records minutes at board meetings, and distributes minutes and announcements of upcoming meetings to board members

 Treasurer: Oversees the organization’s financial aspects, makes regular financial reports to the board, and sometimes serves as chairperson of the board finance committee

Check out File 3-3 at www.wiley.com/go/nonprofitkitfd6e for more-detailed job descriptions you can use.

If the board has standing, or permanent, committees, the board president may appoint committee chairpersons, or they may be appointed by the board. Typical standing committees are finance, development or fundraising, program, and nominating committees. Other possible committees that may be either standing or ad hoc — a temporary committee organized to deal with time-limited projects — are planning, executive search, investment, special events, and facilities. The following list outlines the responsibilities of common standing committees:

 Development: Sets fundraising goals and plans fundraising activities for the organization in consultation with the board president and executive director

 Finance: Assists the treasurer in overseeing financial reports and official tax filings, making budgets, and maintaining relationship with professional accounting firm, if applicable

 Nominating: Recruits new board members and nominates board officers for election to their positions

 Program: Oversees and advises on the program activities of the organization

Board committees make regular reports to the full board about the organization’s activities in their particular areas. Board officer terms and the number and type of standing committees should be written into the organization’s bylaws.

If your organization is large enough to conduct an annual financial audit, your board may be legally required to appoint an audit committee. Be sure to check the laws in your state. You may not be permitted to include the board chair or treasurer on the audit committee.

Executive committees are standard groups on some larger boards of directors. Usually the members of the executive committee are the officers of the board, but the committee sometimes also includes the chairs of the standing committees. The executive committee may hold regular meetings to set the agenda for the meetings of the full board and to advise the board president, or it may come together on an as-needed basis. Sometimes an organization’s bylaws empower the executive committee to make decisions on behalf of the full board in an emergency or in other special circumstances.