Does nonprofit lose institutional memory from term limits?

You have just confirmed one of my major reasons for believing that “Term Limits Are For Cowards.” Forcing people off the board who have been contributing significantly for a number of years seems arbitrary to me, especially when it takes a while to understand an organization so that a person is qualified to provide knowledgeable leadership. There are many ways to get rid of tired or obstructionist directors, the so-called “dead wood,” without waiting for the expiration of their limitation on terms and having a “nice” reason to cut the cord, perhaps as much as five or six years after they have stopped contributing.

One thing you could do now is amend your bylaws to eliminate the term limits. But I understand that most people don’t share my aversion to the concept. If your bylaw amendment applied to all current directors without regard to when they joined the board, you could probably amend the bylaws to spread its effect out to give the few newbies a little more time before they have to leave.

You didn’t tell me the full limitation of the bylaw provision. Is a person able to return to the board after a specified period of absence? If so, you can ask the “good” directors to come back after the period of absence. You can forget those for whom the term limit was created because the board didn’t have the courage to not renew them. Some of the people you want to keep, however, may have taken their interests and their passion somewhere else during the hiatus.

You can delay the memory loss a little bit by not electing people to all of the terms that are ending because of the term limit. Normally incumbent officers and directors hold their positions until their successors are elected. A “good” director whose seat was not filled at the annual election might be able to hang around for another year, but the limited tenure would limit your ability to utilize the holdover’s talents for a long future.

Over time, your memory drain won’t be quite so precipitous as natural attrition staggers the number of people forced off the board each year. And the loss will be slower if the term limit allows 10 years than if it allows only six years of service. But long-term institutional memory will be essentially eliminated even with staggering over a longer term.

One of the surest things I can say about term limits is that most of the directors dealing with the repercussions — things that could be avoided by serious board selection and retention processes without arbitrary limits — won’t be around for very long to worry about how to deal with the adverse effects.