HAHS Board Restructure May Be Imminent

By: HAHS President Ryan Bowman and the Board of Directors

February 2026

This is something I’d rather not write. The delay and conversations about this topic are in part responsible for the newsletter reaching you so late this quarter. Our apologies for that. If you've been following the Society for any amount of time, none of this will come as a surprise. Since I became president in July of 2022, we've consistently invited members to join the board.

Unfortunately, few have taken up the offer, and some who did have since moved on.

Many of you have already contributed as leaders in the past and would now like to see new people take charge—we appreciate your previous service to the leadership team and completely understand. Additionally, several current members will finish their terms by June and are looking forward to some time off. If these changes proceed as expected, along with our already low board numbers, we could end up with five vacant seats.

The Society's board is elected by its members every year and is made up of nine directors, each serving a three-year term. This arrangement ensures there are always three directors with one, two, or three years left in their terms. After their term ends, a board member can be re-elected for another three-year term if approved by the general membership. Officers—including the president, first and second vice presidents, secretary, and treasurer—are chosen annually.

Most officers serve for one year, except the president, who serves for two years. Officers may be re-elected indefinitely; however, no individual may serve as president for more than two consecutive two-year terms. The board’s structure requires 14 people for full membership, with seven present to reach a quorum. Currently, and increasingly in the future, this requirement poses challenges for conducting business properly due to difficulty in meeting the quorum.

This robust design seems ill-fitted for a local, small town historical society, especially in a day and age when the culture is trending away from community organizations and our citizen’s involvement in them. Against that grain, the Halifax Area Historical Society has been very fortunate to have several outstanding young people join our board in recent years, and we value their commitment to our mission.

Currently, we can boast that three of our members are under the age of 25! Our main challenge is not the quality of our board, but rather the number of members. Thus, we find ourselves at a crossroads. More will be forthcoming soon, but for now, we wanted to use the platform of the newsletter to inform membership about the direction we are hopeful to take the board of directors in moving forward.

The current plan is to decrease the board of directors by four positions, eliminating three director seats and the role of second vice president. This adjustment would bring the total number to 10 members—9 with voting rights plus the president. It would also make it easier to fill vacant positions and lower the meeting quorum to 5 voting members, which is a more practical requirement.

According to the organizational Bylaws, changes can be made if at least two-thirds of members present at a regular or special meeting agree, provided everyone receives written notice about the proposed amendment at least one week beforehand. This notice will be given after upcoming discussions among the board and members, with a general membership vote expected soon. In the meantime, please consider becoming part of the board of directors or joining us simply as a member on one of our several planning committees.

Even with this change we will require new board members and fresh leadership!

If we do not see that occur, we are afraid that our next order of business will be to start scaling back on the events and programs the historical society can provide. We’ would hate to see that happen.

So please remember, this is your society –Help us make history and preserve the past for the future!