Use this sample nominating policy to establish your board's policy for nominating non-board members to your committees. 

Note that your CEO should play an active role in board recruitment and have veto power over the nomination of any committee member. In addition, if the committee is staffed by a senior staff member other than the organization’s leader (e.g., CFO, director of development, etc.), they should also play an active role in screening the candidate.

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[ABC Charter School] Nominating Policy for Non-Board Members to Serve on Committees

Primary responsibility for expanding committee membership falls to the committee itself.

The Governance Committee of the board will assist in finding potential committee members, but typically those trustees with the particular expertise needed (e.g., finance, human resources, etc.) are more likely to have the best professional networks to fill these needs.

Non-board members may be added to committees at any time following the procedures below.

1. Annually, each committee conducts a skills inventory and creates a prioritized expansion plan that includes a written description of the skills and expertise they are seeking new committee members.

2. The full board is informed of each committee’s intent to seek committee members, the written descriptions of skills needed is circulated, and all board members are asked to review their personal and professional networks and forward names of potential candidates to the committee.

3. Only committees that are fully constituted by the board and chaired by a full board member are authorized to seek non-board members for their committee. Ideally, the committee would be comprised of a minimum of two board members before adding non-board members.

4. A member of the committee conducts an initial phone screening to explore the background and qualifications of each potential committee member.

5. If the candidate seems like he or she may be a good fit for the committee, he or she is invited to the school to meet a trustee and the CEO and to participate in a lengthier in-person interview. At this point, the candidate is given the Committee Job Description and Expectations and is questioned about his or her ability to comply with all requirements.

6. If the candidate remains a fit for the committee, he or she is invited to attend the next scheduled committee meeting. The candidate is also asked to forward a copy of his or her résumé to the committee for review.

7. If the candidate remains interested after attending a committee meeting, and the committee is so inclined, the committee will forward the potential committee member’s résumé to the full board.

8. At the next regularly scheduled full-board meeting, the candidate committee member will be nominated and the full board of trustees will vote to accept or reject the approval of the new committee member.

9. Once the committee member is approved, he or she will be provided with an orientation.