The IPRA Board of Directors at its Business Meeting on Thursday, June 14th will consider a new Governance Model for the association that will reduce the Board of Directors to 14 in 2008. Currently the Board of Directors has 21 members. The final recommendation from the IPRA Governance Task Force has come after one and half years of research, interviews and focus group discussions with sections, affiliates and general members. The initial recommendation to develop a Governance Task Force and reduce the IPRA Board of Directors came from the IPRA Task Force that reviewed the Sections, Committees and Joint Committees in 2004. This action resulted in a consolidation and reduction of IPRA Committees.
The Board make up would be: Chairman of the Board, Chairman of the Board-Elect, Past Chairman of the Board, One Section Representative from the following; Administration and Finance, Communications and Marketing, Ethnic Minority, Facility Management, Parks and Natural Resources, Recreation and Therapeutic. The Student Section Representative would be eliminated. Three year terms would be established for all Section Representatives and the nominees would have to be interviewed by the Nominations and Elections Committee.
The Board would also be made up of Four (4) Districts (currently called regions). Each District would have One (1) Representative. The Districts have been remapped to provide a balanced distribution of IPRA members in each District. District candidates would be interviewed by the Nominations and Elections Committee, elected from their District membership and serve a Three (3) year term.
The Governance Task Force is also recommending that current qualifications for establishing a section would be reviewed before any other sections are added to the association. They further recommend in the future the Board of Directors be reduced to Nine (9) members. Job Descriptions would be developed for District Board and Section Board Members to clearly identify their duties and responsibilities to their District and Section.
If the IPRA Board of Directors approves the new Governance Structure, it may be necessary to make some changes to the current Nominations and Elections timetable and By-Laws to effectively and efficiently develop an Attrition Plan for the new Board of Directors.
Finally! Well done IPRA Board. You are modernizing a governance structure that was created when I had all my hair and half the waistline. All organizations need to continually improve. This is a very good step. I heartily endorse it and the future plan to reduce to nine members. Best of luck. Arnie Biondo
As IPRA continues to evolve and improve its governance structure and delivery of member services, please remember always that whoever sits in an IPRA governance chair does so to serve, “we the membership” no matter how far we are separated by geographic distances. As I sit here in my Carbondale home office, 342 miles away (according to Yahoo Maps), I’m very familiar with the challenge that we embrace as an association. I am convinced that change must occur for the continued growth and improvement of our association and I challenge my fellow members to support whatever decision is made by our Board of Directors regarding the governance structure selected and to lend their continued assistance as we move forward with this new opportunity to demonstrate our excellence as the national leader in state park and recreation associations. I pledge my support and assistance as the IPRA moves forward into a new and exciting chapter.
George Whitehead, IPRA Past-president – 1986
As students are eliminated from the goverance structure, how will their voices be heard as we try and recruit the next generation to the profession? What avenues to be a part beyond membership?
Dale Adkins, Department Chair and Professor, Western Illinois University