Last week James Rowland-Jones announced that he would be resigning from the PASS Board to accept a position with Microsoft. JRJ was the incoming VP this year  and that causes a certain amount of turmoil:

• JRJ was appointed to be VP starting in 2016, but because his seat wasn’t technically vacant until Jan 1, 2016 we didn’t elect a candidate to fill that vacancy. That position has been historically filled by taking the next highest scoring candidate from the last PASS election. That’s one vacancy that can be filled Jan 1 (or later).
• JRJ steps down, creating the VP vacancy. That must be filled from with the Board it requires at least a year on the Board, so it’s really a subset of the Board that is eligible. Moving up that person to back fill JRJ leaves a vacancy which will also be appointed by the Board.

That new vacancy is interesting. There was only one ‘extra’ candidate on the 2015 ballot, so the Board can choose from the community, or leave it vacant until the next election. I’d like to see it filled – there is work to be done! I’d like to see a “special” election held, but it’s not required by the by-laws as I understand them and I can appreciate that the Board will want to move quickly – an election would take at least 60 days to complete.

With that in mind, I have two suggestions for the Board:

1. Ask the community for recommendations, perhaps after explaining what talents they most need if they can find them in a willing candidate.

2. Look first to former Board members. They’ve been vetted and know the system and can get to work immediately.

My own recommendation to the Board is to appoint Allen Kinsel and ask him to lead – again – the Chapters portfolio. He has been strongly considering running for the Board in 2016, he knows the work, he knows PASS HQ well, and he would be willing to serve (I asked).