Governance Committee

The Governance Committee is responsible for:

• Reviewing and cultivating potential future board members (e.g., understanding current organizational needs, current director skills, meeting with potential candidates)
• Ensuring the process for nominating and evaluating potential future board members is successfully accomplished in a transparent, equitable manner
• Reviewing board performance and making recommendations to enhance effectiveness
• Updating board policies and organizational bylaws

View the Governance Committee Charter.

Diversifying our board

Nonprofit Boards too often do not fully represent the community they seek to serve. Our goal is to deepen the diversity of perspectives and lived experiences represented on our Board to help inform better policies and to strengthen relationships between board members, Mountaineers members, and the wider outdoor community. The Mountaineers values different perspectives that are shaped by unique lived experiences. 

To support this goal, in 2021 we are launching a new open nominations process to discover potential and qualified board members to bring diverse perspectives to our org leadership. Nominate yourself or someone you know to help drive the future of our organization. 

We are committed to an equitable process wherein all members of our community have equal opportunity for consideration. We believe that a diverse and inclusive outdoors inspires unity, respect, and passion for the places we love, and it's important that the members of our Board are representatives of the communities we wish to serve. 

Recruitment Process

Beginning in 2021, we launched a new open nominations process to recruit leaders to our board from across our community. Nonprofit Boards too often do not fully represent the community they seek to serve, and our goal was to deepen the diversity of perspectives and lived experiences represented on our Board to help inform better policies and to strengthen relationships between board members, Mountaineers members, and the wider outdoor community. 

The process was a success its first year, and we plan to follow this process in the coming years. The process is:

1. The Governance Committee identifies vacancies and defines the skills/experience matrix we need to fill and the evaluation rubric that will be used to evaluate new candidates.
2. We make a call to our community for nominations in the spring. See an example from 2022.
3. Individual submit self-nominations or referrals. Individuals who nominate themselves are asked to express their interest in the Board and outline their professional experience, nonprofit leadership, and engagement with The Mountaineers. 
4. Nominated and referred candidates are screened by the Governance Committee and staff.
5. The Governance Committee makes final recommendations for the member vote. Concurrently, Mountaineers members in good standing can nominate board members via the floor nominations process at our annual meeting in September. These candidates are not vetted by the Governance Committee and move on directly for a member vote.
6. Members elect the new board members from the candidate slate in our annual election.

Meetings

The committee usually meets on the first Thursday of the month from 12pm-1pm PST via video/audio conference. Meetings are only open to committee members and, on select occasion, invited guests.

Members

Current committee members include: Gabe Aeschliman (chair), Steve Swenson, Peter Hendrickson, Martina Kozar, Lorna Corrigan, Rich Johnston, Roger Mellem, Gavin Woody, Eric Linxweiler. Staff members Tom Vogl and Tom Helleberg are "ex officio, non-voting members" - members of the committee by virtue of their staff position but without voting privileges. 

Questions?

Questions about the Governance Committee, including interest in becoming a member of our Board of Directors, can be directed to Governance Committee Chair Gabe Aeschliman.

Main image by Karen Wallace.