General Responsibilities
The President is responsible for ensuring that the Board of Directors
and its members: · are aware of and fulfill their governance
responsibilities; · comply with applicable laws and bylaws; · conduct
board business effectively and efficiently; · are accountable for their
performance. (see note 1)
In order to fulfill these responsibilities, and subject to the
organization's bylaws, the President presides over meetings, proposes
policies and practices, sits on various committees, monitors the
performance of Directors and Officers, submits various reports to the
board, to funders, and to other "stakeholders"; proposes the
creation of committees; appoints members to such committees; and performs
other duties as the need arises and/or as defined in the bylaws.
Accountability
The President is accountable to the Board of Directors or Members as
specified in the bylaws. The President may delegate specific duties to the
Executive Director, Board members and/or committees as appropriate;
however, the accountability for them remains with the President.
Specific Duties
Meetings
The President ensures that an agenda is planned for board meetings.
This may involve periodic meetings with committee chairpersons and the
Executive Director to draft annual and meeting agendas and reporting
schedules.
The President presides over meetings of the Board of Directors. In this
capacity, the President:
- chairs meetings according to accepted rules of order for the
purposes of
- encouraging all members to participate in discussion;
- arriving at decisions in an orderly, timely and democratic
manner;
- votes as prescribed in the bylaws. In boards that operate with and
executive committee, the President performs the above duties for the
executive committe
Board Committees
The President serves as an ex-officio member of board committees
specified in the bylaws. In this capacity, the President's role is
- to serve as a voting member of the committee (if specified in the
bylaws);
- to negotiate reporting schedules;
- to identify problems and assist the committee chairperson to resolve
them, and if necessary, to bring them to the attention of the Board of
Directors.
Board-Staff Relations
The President is the primary liaison between the Board and the
executive director. In this capacity, the President:
- meets periodically with the executive director;
- ensures that periodic performance reviews of the executive director
are conducted;
- participates in the hiring and evaluation of the executive
director.
Community Relations
The President ensures that the organization maintains positive and
productive relationships with media, funders, donors, and other
organizations. In this capacity, the President serves as primary
spokesperson for the organization Duties may include:
- representing the organization to the media;
- representing the organization on governmental or nongovernmental
organizations and committees;
- timely and appropriate reporting of Board decisions and actions to
members and/or funders and/or donors.
Signing Officer
The President is normally designated by the Board of Directors and/or
bylaws as one of the signing officers for certain documents. In this
capacity, the President may be authorized or required to sign or
countersign cheques, correspondence, applications, reports, contracts or
other documents on behalf of organization.
Board Development
The President ensures that structures and procedures are in place for
effective recruitment, training, and evaluation of board members.
Fund Raising
The President ensures that structures and procedures are in place for
securing the resources required by the organization. Depending upon the
organization, this may require the President to play a leadership role in
fundraising campaigns through personal contributions of services and
money.
Delegation
Depending upon the organization's needs and its bylaws, the President
may establish or propose the establishment of committees of the Board, and
may assign tasks and delegate responsibilities to board committees and/or
directors.
Note 1
This document uses the word "ensure" to convey the intent
that accountability for the specified responsibilities lies with the
President but it is not necessarily the President who carries out the
activity. Indeed, we expect that many of these responsibilities will be
delegated to board committees, staff, or others including experts retained
for a specific purpose. The word "ensure" is not intended to
imply any additional source of legal duties beyond those that are required
by law.
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