We had a merger just a few years ago. At that time the State Committee had both districts' boards formally resign with anyone interested in serving on the new district board applying to fill the ‘vacant’ positions. A subcommittee reviewed the applicants and determined the staggered appointments, based on previous length of service, performance and openness to work with the new office, making recommendations to the full committee.

In NJ we have 5 member boards appointed on 3-year staggered terms so with this merger we had 2 – 3-year appointments, 2 – 2-year appointments and 1- 1 year appointment.  The subcommittee recommendation was to install the highest performing, most engaged members from the previous districts for the 3-year term, and the 1-year term was a newer candidate who wanted to test the waters before committing to a longer term. The other applicants were then put in the 2-year column.