ACA International Proposes Major Changes to Governance Structure

ACA International announced last week that its Executive Committee has approved a new governance structure that will shrink its Board of Directors from around 80 to 15 and create a new Council of Delegates comprised of designated representatives from the general membership.

ACA, the largest trade group for ARM professionals, said that the new structure would create a more efficient decision-making process and encourage more participation from the broad membership.

“One of the things the Governance Task Force looked at was a way to modernize and streamline the decision-making process to reflect today’s environment,” said Patrick Morris, ACA CEO. “This is a landmark change to our governance.”

In 2010, then-President Martin Sher convened a Governance Task Force to review ACA’s current governance structure and recommend proposals.  ACA’s Executive Committee approved the proposals last week.

The largest changes involve the Board of Directors, the most glaring being the shrinking of the Board to a 15-member panel from its current shifting size of 75 to 80. ACA’s elected officers and CEO would have seats on the new Board, eliminating the need for the current Executive Committee structure.

The number of elected officers would be reduced as well, with only four spots reserved on the Board for officers: President, President-Elect, Treasurer, and CEO as ex officio. The roles of Vice President and Immediate Past-President would not be represented on the new Board.

Since the Board would be responsible for duties previously handled by the Executive Committee, the group would meet more often with electronic meetings being a distinct possibility.

The election of the Board would be the duty of a new Council of Delegates. The Council would be comprised of representatives from ACA member companies, state units, and divisions. Individual member companies with 13 or more ACA member employees would get one delegate, state units would send one representative per 50 member companies, and divisions would get one delegate for every 100 member companies. The International Unit would be allocated six delegates.

There would be no cap on the number of delegates from state units and divisions and the ACA’s President-Elect would serve as the Chair of the Council.

Morris noted that the ACA has received very good feedback for the idea as state units and individual member companies look forward to more representation in the association’s leadership structure. “We’ve seen a lot of enthusiasm for [the Council],” said Morris. “And we’re getting a lot of good questions from the units, which is the sign of a healthy association.”

The proposal will go before the current Board of Directors on December 15. If approved, the current Board would be seated as the first Council of Delegates and elect a new Board of Directors at ACA’s annual convention in July 2012. Over the following year, member companies, state units, and divisions would elect or appoint their representatives to the Council. The first full Council would vote on Board members in July 2013.