[Osmf-talk] Board term limits and term lengths

Christoph Hormann chris_hormann at gmx.de
Sat Apr 22 19:55:11 UTC 2017


On Saturday 22 April 2017, Simon Poole wrote:
>
> Fixed term lengths tend to be the norm (and in most organisations the
> length is one year) so it is not as if we are discussing something
> extraordinary here.

I am not opposed to a fixed term system in principle but i cannot be for 
such a system without knowing the specifics and i can imagine a lot of 
variants of a fixed term system i would definitely be against.

> Lets assume that we switch to a 2x3 system with this years AGM, then
> Paul and 1 further member could stand for re-election for a two year
> term then, next year another three and two in 2019. Note that this is
> the same as with the current system and would work well with the
> current board size. The downside is that we start off a new system
> with some very long terms. I would slightly prefer two year ones, the
> downside there is that we end up electing half of the board at every
> election which some might find overkill and we would have to put
> special rules in place for the transition instead of just letting the
> old system peter out.
>
> Replacements for early step downs could stay in the same cycle as the
> member they are replacing (which however would potentially give them
> less total available time on the board, something that would work
> better with two year terms.

Ok - i try to interpret your in my eyes rather vague suggestions into a 
consistent set of rules:

* each board member is elected for a fixed 3 year term.
* if a board member steps down prematurely a replacement member will be 
elected at the next election for this seat to serve for the remainder 
of the 3 year term.
* an individual who has been elected to the board can run and be elected 
a second time but is non-eligible after having been elected two times 
in any further board election.
* the terms of board members who have been elected before the move to 
fixed term lengths will end according to the old rules independent of 
elections happening under the new rules.
* the new term limits also apply to existing board members for any new 
elections based on the number of times they have been elected in the 
past.

That sounds workable although the concept of replacement board members 
in case of resignations seems rather odd to me and would kind of create 
two classes of board members - the regular ones who serve full three 
year terms and the second class board members who do not.

Also three year terms with a single option for re-election would likely 
make re-running even more a done deal than it is now (so it would be 
more like a single six year term with an option to cut it to half for 
the members in case the board member does a really bad job).  I would 
probably rather like to see two year terms, that would also better 
match the average term length in the past.  If i am not mistaken that 
would also result in a balanced 4-3 scheme in elections with the above 
rules and the starting conditions we have now.

-- 
Christoph Hormann
http://www.imagico.de/



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