KAFP board governance restructure underway – A letter from your president-elect
KAFP
Below is a letter from President-Elect and Nominating Committee Chair Chad Johanning, MD, FAAFP (Lawrence) to update you on changes being considered regarding the KAFP Board governance and leadership structure. We will offer a member comment period once the proposed changes are finalized.
Greetings.
I’m writing today as the KAFP president-elect and chair of the nominating committee for 2020.
Many of you may have heard that KAFP is currently undergoing many changes. One of the most exciting changes is our commitment towards developing leadership in our Academy with a more active and meaningful governance structure. The KAFP board of directors has formed a governance restructure task force that has been meeting intermittently this past year. The recommendations of the task force are pending, but a rough timeline for the outcomes will be no earlier than the summer of 2021.
In anticipation of the task force’s recommendations regarding changes necessary to allow for future growth of our board and leaders on the board, the nominating committee pondered many scenarios for presenting candidates for the 2020 election. Based on the fact there will only be one year before such board governance changes take effect in 2021 and the current board structure supports election of directors for two-year terms, we have decided to ask our current outgoing directors in districts 2, 4, 6 and 8 to stay in their posts for an additional year. This will help transition to the new structure in 2021 in a much more efficient manner by not seeking new leaders for board seats that may be eliminated after one year.
Much like our district directors, we anticipate changes to the executive committee after the restructure. The nominating committee has discussed in great detail how members are identified, elected and ascend to officer roles. Further, the nominating committee decided to reevaluate the process of election of the secretary for the coming year. In contrast to other years, the committee will present one candidate for the secretary role and allow members voting in person to vote on this person or write-in another candidate when officer elections take place during the annual business meeting at Fam Med Forward in June. This upholds our bylaws requirements and allows the anticipated governance restructure to proceed efficiently. This year’s process of secretary election does not suggest a permanent post-restructure change. The process for executive board leadership election is a matter of continued discussion for the governance restructure task force the board of directors and with our members,.
How our nomination process and board structure changes proceed after this year will depend on the work of our governance restructure task force. We look forward to their report and recommendations soon and will continue this dialogue with you, the members, to ensure the intent of these changes and the timeline for implementation are transparent.
Should you have questions about or thoughts on the nominating process for this transition year, don’t hesitate to reach out by email to info@kafponline.org.
Sincerely,
Chad Johanning, MD, FAAFP
KAFP President-Elect
Nominating Committee Chair