Campaign Finance Reform?

This situation came across ASAE & The Center's ExecSec listserv this week:

Our officers are elected by our House of Delegates, which represents our membership through delegates selected by constituent state associations. House of Delegate representation is weighted -- the bigger states get more votes.

At present, we do not restrict campaign spending in any way. [A] work group has been formed due to mounting concerns (perceived or real) about the amount of money candidates are spending -- primarily on travel to various state association conventions and functions -- targeted at the states with larger voting blocks of course. As you can imagine, the ongoing debate about the fairness of our campaign practices includes all the same arguments we hear in ongoing discussions about congressional election campaign reform.

I was surprised to see responses which said that some associations do, in fact, have campaign finance procedures. In my experience, we have always had to reach out to members in order to get them to pursue board positions. Maybe this is a good problem to have.

Tagged: Certified Association Executive CAE Association Management governance campaign finance reform