Troubling incident: The case for board term limits

• Published date: 01 November 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/ban.30358
• Date: 01 November 2016

2 Board & Administrator

DOI 10.1002/ban © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

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From the Board Doctor

Troubling incident: The case for board term limits

The CEO should be grateful for

committed board members, but

also be wary of the drawbacks that

come with having served too long.

A former board member who

served as treasurer for two non-

profits was accused of taking more

than $50,000 from the two orga-

nizations, nwitimes.com reported.

John Kmetz, 79, of Merrillville, Ind.,

faces four theft counts, nwitimes.

com reported.

“Kmetz was charged in March

after officials reviewed three bank

accounts for Hobart-based Cerebral

Palsy of Northwest Indiana and Hun-

ky Hollow Athletic Club of Merrill-

ville,” nwitimes.com reported. Kmetz

served as treasurer at both nonprof-

its for roughly 20 years before being

removed from both boards last year,

nwitimes.com reported.

For more information, go to

http://goo.gl/Mp81Jc.

Clearly this was a difficult situ-

ation for the two organizations

involved. The lesson here for non-

profits, in my view, is that a board

should have term limits.

When the organization’s bylaws

specify term limits, the board is

forced to replace its members in a

planned fashion so that regular ro-

tations of skills, talent and experi-

ence occur.

When this is the board’s prac-

tice, new board members join,

veterans depart and other trustees

have the chance to develop skills

that put them into the positions of

responsibility.

The hesitancy of boards and

administrators to replace board

talent and skills via term limits

comes with risk, as the story above

illustrates. Board members can get

sloppy in their responsibilities, new

member recruitment suffers and

the organization can become com-

fortable cutting corners, all while

board members age and their abili-

ties diminish.

One way to prevent issues such

as the one in the example above is

to require that after two consecu-

tive three-year terms are served, a

board member must resign and not

serve for another full year before

being renominated.

It is the work of a governance/

nominating committee to spend

quality time on the issue of restock-

ing the board roster.

One way to do this is through

board member evaluations at the

end of their term on the board.

These evaluations should be con-

ducted by the board’s governance

committee. The appraisals should

be based on factors such as meet-

ing attendance, participation at

meetings and at the organization’s

events, positions held on the board

and giving records.

By taking on this work, the gov-

ernance committee has an effec-

tive method for determining who

is eligible for another term. If the

board member being turned down

for another term is disappointed,

the governance committee has facts

in hand to explain why.

Sincerely,

Jeff Stratton, Editor

515.963.7972;

jeff_stratton@msn.com ■