How is the Mazamas Governed?

Do you know how Mazamas is governed? Each October members elect three new members to three-year terms on the nine-member Executive Council. The Nominating Committee selects 4-6 candidates to run based on their experience and the unique skills they can bring to making tough decisions about how the organization is managed. Are you interested in serving on the Executive Council or do you know someone you think would do a great job?

Since the Nominating Committee was formed, progress has been made toward the objective of significantly improving the annual EC nominee selection process. We aspire to include all Mazamas members and to identify and target those with skill sets that will best serve the organization now and in the future.

The Nominating Committee has worked with the past and current Executive Councils to define the skills and attributes that would ideally be present on the council at any given time. The Nominating Committee has been using a database that was created with member self-defined professional skillsets to recruit for council, but this database only includes the subset of the membership who completed a survey. As such, we are now reaching out to encourage members with the skills below to get in touch with the Nominating Committee to learn more about running for the Executive Council.

We strive to always have climb leader representation as well as members with other significant Mazama experience/involvement on the Executive Council. There are also technical and other skill sets that must be present to ensure that the organizational fiduciary and oversight responsibility is being met.

We’re currently seeking members with skills in the following areas:

• Board Governance/Board Leadership Experience: Past board experience
• “Big Picture” Strategic Thinkers: For example, business owners, management consultants, organizational development consultants, directors, VPs, CEOs, fundraising strategy experience
• Legal: We’re seeking a lawyer with relevant experience (e.g. non-profit, general commercial/corporate, ideally with prior board experience)
• Finance: This remains a critical area, as we’ve identified this as an area that would ideally be represented in more than one person to have a pipeline for treasurer. Targeted skills include: non-profit experience, fund accounting, restricted funds, accrual accounting, budgeting experience, CPA (experience in the following type of positions would be great: Controller, VP Finance, CFO)
• Management/Leadership Experience: Experience managing a staff, w/ hiring and firing decisions, setting performance goals & holding staff accountable, handling corrective action, and employment relations issues, understanding of human resources issues, compliance and risk management 

Executive Council service is a great way to give back to the organization, but it is also a wonderful professional development opportunity. It can provide valuable experience and help position you for future leadership positions in your professional career. Executive council positions can also be great for those who are retired from positions such as those mentioned above.

The bylaws require that a person has been a Mazama member for three years to run for the Executive Council. If you have one or a mixture of the skills above, please contact Matt Carter (mdcarter@opusnet.com), Nominating Committee chair as soon as possible to discuss your interest and to learn more about the process. We look forward to hearing from you!!