Sue Cunningham (@Cunningham_CASE) is CASE’s president and CEO.

Picture an association—let’s call it CASE—with 11 governing bodies. (Eleven!) Some predate the association’s formation, others developed more recently as CASE expanded globally. Each body has myriad responsibilities.

Now imagine an association governed by a single global board. The board provides legal and fiduciary oversight and is advised by regional councils focused on programming and member service around the world. District cabinets at the local level identify and deliver key priorities for member engagement. This is the CASE of the future.

The CASE Board of Trustees, at its most recent meeting, unanimously approved this new governance design to provide a more seamless, efficient, and nimble means to serve and engage CASE members. The design represents a visionary new way of operating at CASE, one that clarifies responsibility while strengthening our ability to provide meaningful, impactful programming at the local level.

We are very grateful to the many thousands of CASE volunteers and members who have shaped the new governance structure and the strategic plan that it will help deliver.

The new governance structure is now moving into a more detailed planning stage in preparation for full implementation by mid-2020. Over the next months, many CASE member institutions and existing governing bodies will be asked to approve changes related to the new governance design.

Explore CASE’s new governance vision in full in the January/February issue of Currents.