Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington - My Love-Hate of Term Limits

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My Love-Hate of Term Limits

Written by Chuck Bean, on October 11, 2011

By Chuck Bean

I have a love-hate relationship with term limits for board members.

First, let me get the “hate” part out of the way, because my kids say, “Dad, don’t be a Hater.” Our fiscal year just finished and that means two stellar board members have rotated off.

Maria Gomez (Mary’s Center) just completed her term as the Roundtable’s Vice Chair, after

serving two full terms as a board member and fulfilling other Executive Committee roles along the way.

And, Kerrie Wilson (Reston Interfaith) completed two three-year terms on the Roundtable’s board and helped lead our efforts on important policy matters in Virginia; she served as Secretary, and was an all-around great strategist and was instrumental in the creation of Nonprofit NoVA.

The Roundtable's term limits – two three-year terms – means that Stars like Maria and Kerrie rotate off. I hate to see Maria and Kerrie rotate off (and they won’t go far and will continue to play key Roundtable roles), but I love that new Stars are rising and are already taking leadership roles on the board, including:

Russ Snyder (Volunteers of America-Chesapeake) who was so active with the Finance Committee that he was recently elected Treasurer

Tamara Smith (YWCA National Capital Area) who is an active force on our
Resource Development Committee

Herb Tillery (DC College Success Foundation) who is leveraging his experience as former DC Deputy Mayor and head of DC’s Office of Contracting and Procurement (OCP) to lead our efforts to improve the contracting environment for nonprofits in the District.

BoardSource echoes these advantages and disadvantages of term limits - here's what they said about term limits in 1999:

There are no hard-and-fast rules for determining board members’ tenure. Many organizations do, however, limit members to two consecutive terms and require a hiatus of one year before a board member may be reappointed.

Rick Moyers argues for term limits for board chairs in his Chronicle of Philanthropy blog. This logic could be extended to term limits for all board members.

Maria and Kerrie: you’ve paved the way - thanks!

Russ, Tamara, and Herb: we’re looking forward to great things from your leadership.

Term limits may seem like you are losing a valuable asset.

But in my experience, shifting assets can strengthen the impact of an organization.

Term limits? Yeah, OK, I love ‘em.

RSVP for our Oct 25 CEO-Board Chair Summit

Convened by the Meyer Foundation

and the Nonprofit Roundtable.

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