Today we invite you to nominate a murid to serve as representative to the Inayati Order of North America’s Board of Trustees. You may already know that the board exists to provide organizational oversight and is made up of 7-11 active members. The “Murids’ Representative” is the only member elected to the board. Nominations are invited from all of us to be voted upon by members of the North American Jamiat Am per our Bylaws. Please help us find our next Murids’ Representative! Details can be found below …
The Role of Murids’ Representative
The Inayati Order’s Bylaws state that a “Murids’ Representative*” is to be elected by members of the Jamiat Am for two-year terms. Any active murid from Canada, the United States, Australia or New Zealand may be nominated for this role and would have the following responsibilities:
- Serve as a “Trustee” for the Inayati Order in North America with full voting rights. The term is for two years.
- Represent the Muridship, and this specific group’s interests, in board meetings when priorities are set, and when decisions are made.
- Communicate with the Muridship, regularly updating this specific group about board activities and inviting feedback and ideas. Previous Murids’ Representatives have sent summaries of monthly board meetings to our Murids Elist and/or after spring and fall board retreats. Current ways to reach murids are through existing Mailchimp and Discourse email lists.
- Offer oneself as a go to person for murids with feedback, ideas and/or questions.
*This position is different than an “Esoteric School Representative” which serves a teaching and guiding function. “Murids’ Representatives,” while they must be initiated within the Esoteric School as murids, do not need to be “Esoteric School Representatives.”
Requirements of Serving
The Murids’ Representative will need to:
- Attend monthly board meetings via Zoom video conferencing software. The meetings are on Monday nights from 7-9 pm EST.
- Attend two annual “Board Retreats,” one in the spring and one in the fall, both in-person at the Astana in Richmond, Virginia. (Please nominate regardless of financial ability to attend these retreats. We try to work with board members to make sure that everyone can attend.)
- Participate in ongoing Board elist discussions, using Basecamp Project Management, contributing input on ideas, priorities, strategy and decisions.
- Help orient their successor, attending one board meeting overlapping terms.
Special Note
The Murids’ Representative is a unique role and is the only member of the board elected to represent a specific constituency. As such, it is recommended that this position focus on serving the muridship and limit activities in the variety of board committees, except for perhaps an existing ad hoc Inayati Centers Committee.
General Trustee Roles
To act as Fiduciary Stewards ensuring organization funds and resources are managed judiciously and with great care, driven by ethical business principles and standards, and that meet the core needs and requirements to ensure viability and sustainability in the organization
To act as Mission Stewards ensuring that policies, programs and services provided by the organization meet the expectations as identified in the organizational mission and strategic plan; to further ensure that all activities are tested against the mission for relevance and appropriateness.
To Manage Risk for the organization through policy, performance and management monitoring and ensuring ethical and legal requirements are met.
Process of Electing the Murids’ Representative
We plan to elect a new Murids’ Representative in March 2019. Our process is as follows:
- Nominations will be accepted March 1-15, 2019 to board@inayatiorder.org. Please send us the person’s name and why you think the person would be a good Murids’ Representative. You may nominate someone else or self-nominate.
- Strong candidates are murids with every day communications experience (elist and social media), good outreach skills, and time to participate and follow through on decisions and projects. Specialized skills in the following areas are appreciated: organizational development, human resources, grassroots organizing, digital media, internet technology, public relations, finance, and resource development. We also value a cross section of viewpoints and perspectives on the board, including people representing a variety of generations, geographic regions, races and ethnicities, religious and spiritual backgrounds, and all types of belief.
- As we receive nominations, we will reach out to nominees asking them to send us a short biography statement and profile image.
- Nominee information will be posted on Survey Gizmo’s election cloud-based software. The link with all nominees will be sent to all members of the Jamiat Am by Thursday March 21, 2019.
- We will invite nominees to meet with members of the Jamiat Am, via Zoom video conferencing, on the afternoon of Saturday, March 23, at a time to be announced. This will be a special meeting as part of the Inayati Order’s Spring Leadership Training.
- Voting will take place from March 23-March 31, 2019. The person elected will be announced the first week of April 2019, with the position beginning that month and serving through March 2021.
Nominations & Questions
Please send nominations and questions to board@inayatiorder.org.
Thank you!
