NaCCRA Forum: Governance of CCRC/LifePlan Communit

http://www.ghbcresidents.org/Content/Council%20&%20Committees/Resident%20Council/Bylaws/

Here at Ingleside at King Farm in Rockville, MD, there has been an evolution in how we run elections. When I first came here, residents would choose to run for seats and there were sometimes several different candidates. Then they moved to a system where a Nominating Task Force selected candidates, with an option for others to petition to be candidates with 10 signatures from residents. Last year, they removed the option for additional candidates by petition. This makes the Resident Council in effect a self-perpetuating body. The Residents Association as a whole never meets.

ARTICLE V

Elections

Section 1. The Council encourages and facilitates participation in elections by all members of the Association.

Section 2. A Nominating Task Force shall be selected annually each January by the Executive Committee (see Article VI) to propose candidates for each open elected position on the Council (i.e. Officers and At Large members). This Task Force

shall consist of five Residents not running for office, including current and past members of the Council. In selecting the Task Force, the Executive Committee shall seek equitable representation from Fountainside and Gardenside. By March 15 of the first year of a two-year election cycle, the Task Force shall propose candidates for President and each of two Vice Presidents (one each from Fountainside and Gardenside). The following year, the Task Force shall propose candidates for Secretary-Treasurer and each of three At Large positions, including at least one At Large candidate from both Fountainside and Gardenside. Any Resident may submit his or her name or the name of any other Resident to the Nominating Task Force for consideration as a candidate, provided that the proposed Resident agrees to serve as a member of the Council if elected. The Council

is of the view that, while more than one candidate may be proposed for any position, the Nominating Task Force shall strive to narrow the nominations to one candidate per position where possible.

Elections shall be held in April for terms to begin in May. All members of the Resident Association shall be eligible to vote for

any and all of the candidates nominated by the Nominating Task Force.

Section 3. Terms of elected members of the Council shall be two years. All Council members shall be eligible to serve consecutive terms. Any elected member of the Council whose term is expiring may be nominated for a different

position on the Council. And any elected member may be nominated for their previously-held position after at least one year off the Council, provided that he or she has not previously served for two terms in that position.

Section 4. Chairpersons of the Council Committees (see Article VII) shall be selected by the members of their respective Committees in December to serve two-year terms beginning in January, ordinarily with a limit of two terms.

Section 5. If a member of the Council (elected or Committee Chair) resigns or is unable to serve until the expiration of his/her term, that position shall be filled as expeditiously as possible by the following procedures: President: by a Vice President, elected by secret ballot of the Council; Vice President: by an At Large member, elected by secret ballot of Council; preserving building representation; Secretary-Treasurer: by an At Large member, selected by the Executive Committee; At Large member: selected by the Executive Committee, preserving representation balance; Council Committee Chair: by the relevant Committee.

Section 6. A person selected or elected to serve the balance of the term of a Council member who resigns or is unable to serve may be nominated to serve two full two-year terms if he/she has served as a replacement member for less than one year.

Ashby Ponds Resident Advisory Council Constitution & Bylaws

Will someone please share their facility's bylaws pertaining to the election process? I may be optimistic but I'd like to propose an amendment to our "just vote yes for whom we want" process. If I don't have to reinvent the wheel, that would be great.

For those at facilities what have the type of officer elections like we have (very undemocratic) is anyone disturbed by that?

That would be an improvement. We have a slate of two people chosen by the Nominating Committee (after discussing who would be good I suppose) and at a meeting of the entire residents in IL, we get to affirm them by saying aye. No ballots, no opportunity to write in anyone. Just 'aye' or nominate oneself AT the meeting (I understand no one has).

Re single candidate for given office proposed by Nominating Task Force, under earlier bylaws at Ingleside King Farm, any ten residents could propose an alternative candidate, whose name would then appear on the ballot. That alternative was not in practice used, but it overcame the appearance or fact of pre-selected outcomes. Very important.

Sounds like you have problems at your CCRC. In my community, many women are in leadership roles in the Resident Council and resident committees (and in staff - the top three staff positions are all held by Black women, and in our corporate office both the CEO and COO are women). The Healthcare Committee has been consistently composed mostly of retired healthcare professionals, and I believe all of its Chairs have been retired physicians. Of course, not every community is going to have as many retired healthcare professionals as we do, partly because we are near the NIH headquarters. One aspect of balance considered here is between residents of our two buildings.

We also use term limits to keep the same residents from running things all the time. For example, all positions on the Resident Council are for two years, and only one term in an office is permitted.

Bill Samuel, Ingleside at King Farm, Rockville, Maryland

This is interesting. Whose definition of "balanced" is used? We are probably a vast majority of women, yet the same men seem to run things. Is that balanced?

Capable and ready? Is the chair of the healthcare committee with no healthcare experience (but male) more qualified - capable - than several seasoned nurses?

It's a difficult matter. Yes, it does seem like that. OTOH, the purpose is to ensure there is someone capable and ready to serve for each position, and that there is balance on the Council as a whole (which was a major consideration at my community in moving to such a system). Without that, you can wind up with no candidate or a candidate who is not suited for the position, and you can also wind up with a Council significantly unrepresentative of the total population. There are no easy answers.

Bill Samuel, Ingleside at King Farm, Rockville, Maryland

This is now being debated at Westminster Place in Evanston, IL. There are very strong feelings both ways.

It seems to me that when a committee nominates only one candidate for each position, it gives the impression that a small group of people are choosing who is on the RAC.

At Ingleside at King Farm in Rockville, Maryland, when I came here in 2014, residents could put their hat in the ring for positions or others could put their names in. There was always a forum where candidates could speak, and then we had elections which were sometimes competitive, although sometimes only one had put in for a position or even no one. When we began preparing for expansion, there was a task force to work on modifying the governance to be appropriate for the new situation with two residential buildings. The elections system was then modified to provide for a Nominating Task Force to select candidates, with the possibility for additional residents to petition to be candidates. The 2022 revision of the Bylaws further changed the system to the following:

ARTICLE V

Elections

Section 1. The Council encourages and facilitates participation in elections by all members of the Association.

Section 2. A Nominating Task Force shall be selected annually each January by the Executive Committee (see Article VI) to propose candidates for each open elected position on the Council (i.e. Officers and At Large members). This Task Force shall consist of five Residents not running for office, including current and past members of the Council. In selecting the Task Force, the Executive Committee shall seek equitable representation from Fountainside and Gardenside. By March 15 of the first year of a two-year election cycle, the Task Force shall propose candidates for President and each of two Vice Presidents (one each from Fountainside and Gardenside). The following year, the Task Force shall propose candidates for Secretary-Treasurer and each of three At Large positions, including at least one At Large candidate from both Fountainside and Gardenside.

.

Any Resident may submit his or her name or the name of any other Resident to the Nominating Task Force for consideration as a candidate, provided that the proposed Resident agrees to serve as a member of the Council if elected. The Council is of the view that, while more than one candidate may be proposed for any position, the Nominating Task Force shall strive to narrow the nominations to one candidate per position where possible.

Elections shall be held in April for terms to begin in May. All members of the Resident Association shall be eligible to vote for any and all of the candidates nominated by the Nominating Task Force.

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At Bethany Village in Mechanicsburg, PA, the Residents' Council has a nominating committee which solicits nominations from the 5 different RL areas. The nominees have to agree that they want to run and can nominate themselves. Then then nominating committee holds elections for the open positions from each area by secret ballot. The only concern is that they do not announce the vote totals, only the names of the winners.

I have become aware that at Westminster Canterbury of the Blue Ridge, the nominating committee gleans names from the various IL areas, discusses who would be best for the two open offices each year, submits the two names to the resident association who then get to vote 'aye'. It's totally undemocratic and against the norms of every professional association/non-profit I have ever been a member of.

Others?

At Ingleside at King Farm (Rockville, Maryland), the Resident Council also has a process to vet and choose a candidate for each position. Anyone else can run with a petition signed by 10 residents, which has never happened.

Bill Samuel

At Westminster Place in Evanston Illinois. We do not have any of the rules you mention but so far as I know, no one does most of those things you mentioned. It seems to be assumed here that the Nominating Committee will select and sort though the suggested candidates, choose one candidate for each office and those candidates will become members of the RAC. This surprises me and strikes me as rather undemocratic. How is it done in other places?

For your resident council annual elections. Do you have any rules or process to follow if you are a candidate? If so, what are they?

If someone is a write-in candidate, with your name not on the ballot, are you forbidden to email people who are voting to let them know you are running as a write-in candidate? Are you forbidden to include / send email to people who do not know you, and if you do you are reprimanded?

Can you campaign in any way, like put a post on a bulletin board? Hand out flyers? Hold a meeting to invite people to get to know you?

Do candidates get a pamphlet about what activity is permitted to avoid misunderstandings and problems during the election?

Linda Kilcrease

Resident of a CCRC