As our membership has shrunk, it has become increasingly difficult to find candidates to stand for Director. While it was not long ago that the size of the Board was reduced from fifteen to nine, it may be time to consider additional reductions.
'''Proposal #1: The Society should consider linking the number of Directors to the size of the membership, with a maximum of 15, a target of 10% of the membership , and a minimum of five. Terms should continue to be staggered regardless the size of the Board.'''
The above can be implemented either through a [[By-Laws]] amendment, or by a 4/5 vote to change the number of [[Directors]].
An interesting note comes from reviewing attendance. Attendance as a percentage of the Board generally increases as the number of Directors decreases. Even more interesting, the average attendance for a 15-member Board and a 9-member Board was the same: five. This suggests that further reductions in the number of Directors is unlikely to have much impact, nor will increases.
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The [[By-Laws]] permit the creation of an [[Executive Committee]] as a smaller version of the Board, with very broad authority to act when the Board does not meet. The motivation for this was two-fold: first, when meetings are held in person, it is difficult and expensive to bring Directors together on a frequent basis; second, the large Board had become unmanageable, with a majority being non-participants. Given that the meetings are now largely held via teleconference, and that the size of the Board has been cut, neither argument remains.
'''Proposal #2: The Society should discontinue the use of the Executive Committee, and perhaps consider removing the option from the By-Laws.''' ---- At one time in Society history, all Directors who were not elected officers were named Vice-Presidents in charge of one of the major activities of the Society (the five major categories of study, publications, facilities, etc.) There are two ways to achieve this: # Directors who are not elected Officers are each assigned an area of responsibility; or# The Chairmen of each major department are elected to the Board either by manipulation of the election or by careful resignation and appointment of Directors willing to shoulder the responsibility. '''Proposal: The Society should consider how important it is that each department be represented on the Board by a dedicated Director, and if this is felt important steps should be taken to ensure that this is the case, possibly by amending the [[By-Laws]].'''
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