Pamela Sezgin has summed up well the term limits question.

Another good reason for term limits is that with few exceptions, most
people get a little stale or tired if they've been on a board for 6
years, and an organization is almost certain to start stagnating when
Board members routinely serve longer than that. If officers are elected
separately from directors, the best Board members might move into
one-year officer positions (also with a two term limit) in addition to
two terms as a director, so the people who are really terrific, become
officers with a lot of experience. (And, as Pamela points out, past
presidents can be very helpful, so if a person served a max of two terms
in each of these positions (3 yr. Director terms, 1 Yr. officer terms
and 1 or two year Past Pres terms, an individual could conceivable serve
a total of ten years (maybe two more if they move up from VP to Pres.).
That keeps even the most fabulous people on plenty long.

While we're on the subject, I have a question of my own. Is there *ever*
a good reason for having a paid employee on the Board?  I've come across
this in another organization I belong to, and think is is NOT a good
thing. (Employee in question is not a CEO --there is none). I just
assumed that it is never done, and that it's not in the by-laws because
it isn't even a choice, but people say, "well, it isn't in the by-laws
that they can't, so it must be all right." Comments, please...

Lucy Sperlin



Pamela Sezgin wrote:
>
> Even "good" board members should rotate on and off due to the fact that people's personalities change and power corrupts!   You also want to have policies and procedures that are fair and consistent so that people will want to serve on your board and so that you attract community-minded, actualizing board members (as opposed to attracting self-promoting, opportunistic, or laissez-faire types who only care about resume building).
>
> The "good" board members can be retained as committee chairs, as volunteer fund-raisers on the development committee, or they can serve a series of terms (2 at most before they rotate off to do something else).
>
> The reason rotation is a good idea is that it theoretically keeps the board working as a whole, rather than having it be dominated by one or two extremely powerful people who may not act in the interests of the museum.
>

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