Board Chair/President Job Description
The Board Chair/President is responsible for ensuring that the Board of Directors and its members: are aware of and fulfill their governance responsibilities, comply with applicable laws and bylaws, conduct board business effectively and efficiently, and are accountable for their performance.
In order to fulfill these responsibilities, and subject to the organization’s bylaws, the Board Chair/President presides over meetings, proposes policies and practices, sits on various committees, monitors the performance of Directors and Officers, submits various reports to the board, to funders, and to other “stakeholders”; proposes the creation of committees; appoints members to such committees; and performs other duties as the need arises and/or as defined in the bylaws.
Accountability – The Chair/President is accountable to the Board of Directors or Members as specified in the bylaws. The Chair/President may delegate specific duties to the Executive Director, Board members and/or committees as appropriate; however, the accountability for them remains with the Chair/President.
Specific Duties
Meetings – The Chair/President ensures that an agenda is planned for board meetings. This may involve periodic meetings with committee chairpersons and the Executive Director to draft annual and meeting agendas and reporting schedules.
The Chair/President presides over meetings of the Board of Directors. In this capacity, the President:
- chairs meetings according to accepted rules of order for the purposes of
- encouraging all members to participate in discussion;
- arriving at decisions in an orderly, timely and democratic manner;
- votes as prescribed in the bylaws. In boards that operate with and executive committee, the Chair/President performs the above duties for the executive committee
Board Committees – The President serves as an ex-officio member of board committees specified in the bylaws. In this capacity, the Chair/President’s role is
- to serve as a voting member of the committee (if specified in the bylaws);
- to negotiate reporting schedules;
- to identify problems and assist the committee chairperson to resolve them, and if necessary, to bring them to the attention of the Board of
Board-Staff Relations – The Chair/President is the primary liaison between the Board and the executive director. In this capacity, the President:
- meets periodically with the executive director;
- ensures that periodic performance reviews of the executive director are conducted;
- participates in the hiring and evaluation of the executive
Community Relations – The Chair/President ensures the organization maintains positive and productive relationships with media, funders, donors, and other organizations. In this capacity, the Chair/President works in conjunction with the Executive Director to serves as one of the primary spokespersons for the organization.
Duties may include:
- representing the organization to the media;
- representing the organization to advertisers, endorsers and sponsors;
- representing the organization on governmental or nongovernmental organizations and committees;
Signing Officer – The Chair/President is designated by the Board of Directors and/or bylaws as one of the signing officers for certain documents. In this capacity, the President may be authorized or required to sign or countersign cheques, correspondence, applications, reports, contracts or other documents on behalf of organization.
Board Development – The Chair/President ensures that structures and procedures are in place for effective recruitment, training, and evaluation of board members.
Fundraising – The Chair/President ensures that structures and procedures are in place for securing the resources required by the organization. Chair/President is a leadership role in fundraising campaigns through personal contributions of services and money.
