Pros and Cons of a Nominating Committee

Our By-Laws are silent on the need for a nominating Committee. We are a small Condo Assoc. of 52 units. In the past any qualified person was invited to submit a brief overview of their qualifications/desire to serve on the board. We have never been overwhelmed with applicants. Nominations are also accepted from the floor. Now there seems to be talk of a nominating Committee.

Would appreciate your comments on the pros and cons of having one.

Thanks

The most common function of a nominating committee is to allow the incumbent board to allow only those in its favor to run. I see no good use for such a committee.

I don't think you can have a nominating committee unless it is authorized in your bylaws. You must follow the procedures in your bylaws for nominating candidates to run for the board.

In spite of the previous comments on this thread, a nominating committee, when properly used, can provide a useful purpose.

A nominating committee should be impartial. In a well-run organization, incumbent board members usually do not serve as members of a nominating committee. In better organizations, members of the nominating committee are elected by the members of the organization themselves.

The purpose of the nominating committee is to seek out candidates that are qualified and willing to run. This avoids a situation where someone is nominated from the floor at the annual meeting and declines to run. According to Roberts Rules, the nominating committee does not have to name only one individual for each office or position. Thus, in an election for board members where there are, say, 3 vacancies, the nominating committee could name 4 or 5, or more candidates for those positions. Unfortunately, this is rarely done. In many organizations the nominating committee recommends only one candidate for each office or position and presents it as a single "slate" of individuals to fill those positions. Though often done, this is poor parliamentary practice.

Even where a nominating committee is authorized and used, Roberts Rules still requires the president to ask for nominations from the floor after the nominating committee has made its report and before voting takes place.

Helene, since you are in Connecticut, you are required by state law to abide by Roberts Rules. Thus:

1. You must first refer to your bylaws and Connecticut's non-stock corporation laws with regard to nominating candidates for the board.

2. Then, you must follow Roberts Rules with regards to nominating committees (if authorized) and nominations from the floor.

Nominating Committees are a choke/control point and often misused. Best to do away with them.

Do not confuse them with the ability to check if one is eligible to run and that needs to be done sometimes even immediately before voting commences.

We had one person that got so excited they nominated themselves from the floor and they were not even an owner (they were a potential owner there as a guest of an owner) thus ineligible. Took us 10 minutes to straighten that...LOL

The problem with nominations from the floor is that much of the decision-making has already been done and in many cases the voting is already over.

My state requires the use of either in-person or mail-in ballots. If I mail in my ballot a month before the meeting I have no opportunity to vote for the guy who got nominated at the meeting.

I am usually more of a lurker here, but did want to add something -

One thing that a committee may be useful for is to weed out those who may not really be serious about being on the board. I have seen numerous people get nominated and elected from the floor only to find out later that they really hadn't thought it through; they had absolutely no idea what was involved in being a board member, or don't really want to put in the time and effort. Or worse, they do it just in an effort to take votes away from someone they don't want on the board.

I'll add to the last couple of posts by noting what happened in our own community.

Several years ago, when the association was transitioned to the homeowners, at the first election of an all-homeowner board, there were over a dozen candidates for five openings. Once people discovered that there was actually work involved, the number of candidates dwindled each year. Now, we're lucky to get enough people to run the fill the number of openings (3 one year, 2 the next year, and so on).