Update from Your NACAC Delegates

Brian Hodges
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Hello IACAC,

On Monday, January 25, NACAC CEO Angel Perez and NACAC President Todd Rinehart shared proposed governance changes.

The NACAC Board of Directors is proposing amendments to the by-laws that would enable ALL eligible NACAC voting members to elect board officers and directors. Currently, this privilege is only granted to Assembly delegates.

The proposed change would switch responsibility for electing the officers and directors from Assembly delegates to eligible NACAC voting members. NACAC also wants to update the voting procedures so that online voting is permitted prior to any Annual or Special Meeting of the members. This will also require that NACAC adjust quorum requirements so that they won’t revolve around conference registration or meeting attendance.

Additional changes will be made to board service eligibility requirements. The requirements will be updated so that all NACAC voting members in good standing for 5 years prior to assuming office are now eligible for board service. The previous requirements for board service will be removed.

Additional proposed by-law amendments include:

• Transferring the responsibility of removing an elected officer or board member from delegates to eligible voting members.
• Clarifying the term parameters of a member appointed to the office of President-elect by the President if the member elected is unable to complete their term so that the term coincides with the conclusion of the next annual meeting of the membership instead of the Assembly.
• Replacing Code of Ethics and Professional Practices with Guide to Ethical Practice in College Admission throughout the document as well as removing references to monitoring and compliance.

The “Why” behind these proposed changes focuses on NACAC being more inclusive of the 14,000+ membership. Currently, only the 215 delegates can vote on NACAC leadership. The proposed changes will provide a wider pool of members who can run for the board. This will align NACAC’s governance structure with similar organizations and affiliates. The changes will also take advantage of technology so voting will be more accurate and reliable.

These potential changes would significantly impact the role of Assembly at the NACAC conference.

Voting on the proposed changes started at 11 am CT on Thursday, January 28 and ends at 11 am CT on Friday, March 26 via an electronic platform. To achieve quorum, 1/10 of all eligible voting members must submit a ballot. For the motion to pass, 2/3 of those who submit a ballot must vote in the affirmative.

Your IACAC delegates to NACAC have discussed the proposed governance changes. We want to make sure that our members have a chance to ask questions and discuss the potential change with us. We will have more information about that coming soon. In the meantime, if you have any questions you can direct them to delegates@iacac.org.

You can also visit NACAC’s website for more information, which includes a recording of NACAC’s meeting regarding this: https://www.nacacnet.org/about/governance/special-member-vote.