Last week, the NAHB Board of Directors approved a Bylaws amendment authorizing Associate members to serve in any officer position within an affiliated local association, including president or chairman. This amendment only affects affiliated local associations and takes effect immediately.
Whether an individual affiliated local association chooses to allow associate members to serve as officers or chooses to elect them remains a local decision. However, most affiliated local associations will need to amend the executive committee and/or board of directors portions of their own bylaws before they can implement this measure.
If your local association chooses to allow associates to serve as officers, including chief elected officer or president, you should take care to ensure that the respective portions of your bylaws do not conflict with NAHB’s current bylaws requirement which state that “the majority of the corporate officers and members of the Board of Directors [for affiliated local associations] are builder members”. (Article II, §1 (iii)).
Additionally, affiliated local associations that automatically designate their incumbent or incoming chief elected officer as nominees to the NAHB board should also be mindful that this amendment does not change any NAHB bylaws governing who may serve as a director of NAHB.