Mountaineers Board Leadership Nominations Form 2021

Welcome

Thank you for your interest in The Mountaineers Board of Directors! At The Mountaineers, we believe a diverse and inclusive outdoors inspires unity, respect, and passion for the places we love. We aspire to offer outdoor opportunities for ALL, and in order to realize this aspiration we launched this new board nominations process to help us discover potential and qualified board members. We are looking for members with a passion for The Mountaineers who bring a diversity of experience, skills, and expertise to successfully lead our organization, especially during these challenging social and economic times.

About the Board of Directors
The Board of Directors includes At-Large Directors, who are elected by the members of the organization, Branch Directors, who are elected by members of the branch they represent, and Officers, who are appointed by the Board Executive Committee. The Governance Committee, chartered by the Board of Directors in our bylaws, is responsible for recruiting and nominating candidates for at-large board positions. This new board nominations process was designed by an ad hoc subcommittee of the Governance Committee in partnership with the Equity & Inclusion Committee.

The Mountaineers Board of Directors is the governing body accountable for overall operation of the organization, as dictated by our bylaws. The Board’s responsibilities include developing and approving the strategic plan, approving the organization’s annual budget and tracking overall financial performance, hiring the CEO, electing the board’s officers, and setting organizational policies and procedures. The board works with the CEO and staff to set the overall direction for the organization through the strategic plan (e.g., Vision 2022). The board also reviews and approves the annual budget and reviews performance to that budget.

As a Board Member, you volunteer to steward the future of our organization. You commit to attending meetings (6 times/year, with two of those meetings 1-2 day retreats), and actively participate in ad-hoc work, either as an officer, through committee meetings, by providing virtual support, being an active participant in our philanthropic fundraising efforts, and by attending events. You’d serve a 3-year term, with the opportunity for an additional term.

Experience We Seek
We’re looking for people who want to be part of building and expanding the future of The Mountaineers. If you are, or if you know of, a current member who is excited to expand our vision to offer opportunities to connect with nature and one another for all people, we want to hear from you! We seek to have a board that represents the broad diversity of the communities we serve, and we encourage people of color, LGBTQIA+ individuals, individuals with disabilities, and veterans to apply.

We are specifically looking for individuals with professional experience in the following areas:

Finance and/or Audit
Publishing
Philanthropy
Strategic Planning
DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion)
Conservation & advocacy
Change Management
Connection to Outdoor Sector (brands/industry)
Connection to Broader Community (outside of The Mountaineers)
Nonprofit management

Diversifying Our Board
Nonprofit Boards too often do not fully represent the community they seek to serve. Our goal is to deepen the diversity of perspectives and lived experiences represented on our Board to help inform better policies and to strengthen relationships between board members, Mountaineers members, and the wider outdoor community. The Mountaineers values different perspectives that are shaped by unique lived experiences. Since diversity can mean many different things, we are specifically considering nominees based on dimensions that shape a person's lived experience that include: :

Ethnicity and/or race
Gender identity
Age
Disability status
Military status
Sexual orientation
Parent or guardian status
Branch affiliation
Primary activities
Involvement and engagement with The Mountaineers
Leadership and professional experience

We ask for information relating to these dimensions in this form to help further diversify our Board and hold ourselves accountable to our strategic plan goals. Providing demographic information is encouraged but optional.