The Spring is often a time of year when hard-working nominating committees do their annual duty of figuring out how to fill vacant board seats and determine who will be next year's board officers. Yes, I know, I'm a firm believer in Governance Committees as a body that not only does recruitment but also gets engaged in orientation, training and making sure that the board functions. But that's another subject.
Meanwhile, it remains that time of year for many boards to go seek others to join their ranks. Now of course one "better practice" may already be broken in this statement. The recruitment and officer selection processes should not be one time events. Recruitment should be year round (always scoping out possible members and/or recruiting good folks to join task forces as prospective board members). And officers should be a reflection of a succession plan that recognizes that good presidents/chairs in particular have been groomed and seasoned and prepared for their entry into the top volunteer leadership position.
But one other question nags around this topic. Is there a role for the CEO in these activities? My opinion: absolutely. The CEO comes in contact with all kinds of folks, as does the board and both should always be on the lookout for good prospects. But it's the officers and chair selection in particular which really deserve CEO involvement. The CEO will be directly accountable to and paired with the Board Chair for at least a year and what is becoming more often, two years. If the CEO and Chair do not like each other or have radically different styles or other factors that will limit the effectiveness of both, this should be given some consideration by the Governance Committee. And it is important to remember that while a board member will generally give around 40-50 hours of their time a year and a chair maybe 70-100 or more hours of their time, the CEO is spending as much as 12-7 and thus really relies on a Chair who will be a partner when in office.
So, should the CEO be involved in selecting the Chair -- absolutely!