Call for Candidates for NAQC Board of Directors

Call for Candidates for NAQC Board of Directors
All submissions areneeded by Friday, February 28!

On behalf of NAQC’s Board of Directors and the Nomination Committee, I am soliciting your recommendations for candidates for the NAQC Board of Directors. NAQC members submitted terrific candidates in previous years and we were able to add excellent directors to the board as a result. Thank you for your participation in shaping NAQC’s future!

We are counting on you to help us find outstanding candidates again this year. All NAQC members may submit candidate names.You are welcome to recommend names of candidates whom you nominated in past years as well.

Please send all recommendations for candidates to Chad Morris, Chair of the Nomination Committee, c/o Board@naquitline.org by Friday, February 28.For each person you would like to recommend, please provide the following information:

1. Full name, contact information and brief resume for the person;
2. Your rationale for recommending this person as a candidate; and
3. Confirmation that you have spoken to the person and know that s/he is willing to have her/his name put forward to the Nomination Committee for consideration.

This year, we will be electing up to 3 new directors. It is our intention to put forward up to 5 names to the membership for election. The Board chose this approach to allow for a meaningful vote without invoking undue competition.

The board is responsible for setting NAQC’s strategic direction, connecting with its members and ensuring NAQC’s advancement and sustainability.

During the next few years quitlines will experience many changes in the populations served, technology used, and approaches to sustainability. NAQC seeks candidates for the board who are innovative "difference makers” and who can help guide us through the changes ahead. Candidates for the board should have senior level experience, possess leadership skills, be strategic thinkers and display professional and collegial demeanor. Board members do not represent their employer or any specific constituency, but instead work together to create a global vision for NAQC. The board seeks members who are committed to NAQC’s mission and values, contribute diverse viewpoints and cultural experiences, and have expertise in some of the areas listed below:

• Finance: The Board is responsible for financial oversight of the organization, and seeks candidates with expertise in this area. Currently, there are no CPAs or MBAs on the Board.
• Relationships with health plans and employers: Engaging private health plans and employers has become an important activity for quitlines. The board would benefit from a member who has relationships in these sectors.
• Addressing priority populations: Addressing disparities in health is a key objective for NAQC. We seek candidates with an expertise and background in cultural knowledge and experience in reaching priority populations.
• Making quitlines sustainable: Ensuring quitline sustainability is a key objective for NAQC. Recently, government funding for quitlines and tobacco control programs has been decreasing. NAQC seeks candidates who offer strategic leadership on new approaches to sustainability planning for quitlines, including public-private partnerships and integration of quitlines in health systems.
• Understanding issues related to organizational sustainability for NAQC: Ensuring sustainability of the organization is a key responsibility of the Board. NAQC seeks candidates who offer strategic leadership in fundraising and working with donor and/or grant-making organizations.
• Policy governance of a not-for-profit organization: Experience on a non-profit board is extremely helpful to candidates. NAQC follows a policy governance model developed by John Carver which focuses on business issues and strategic leadership. The Board does not focus on program development; this responsibility is delegated to staff.