The boards of the American Society of Association Executives and The Center For Association Leadership will appoint a joint task force to reexamine the governance relationship between the two organizations, says John Graham, president and chief executive officer at ASAE.

The decision to convene a task force follows the announcement by Susan Sarfati, president and CEO at The Center and executive vice president at ASAE, that she will resign effective August 31. Before moving to hire a replacement, the boards decided to take the opportunity to look at where the organizations are aligned, where they are not, and how greater alignment can be achieved to serve members most efficiently and effectively, explains Graham. It is the first time that this type of assessment has been done since the organizations merged more than four years ago, he adds. The task force will make recommendations to the boards on the best way to move forward.

Look for more details on the initiative from ASAE and The Center in the coming weeks.

Also, Donald Shea, CAE, resigned as a member of ASAE’s board of directors and chair-elect for the upcoming 2008-2009 year. The resignation is effective June 1. Shea cited his inability to devote the time and energy to serve ASAE as the reason for his resignation. “The membership and the staff deserve a chairman who will make this commitment unequivocally," he wrote. “At this time, I am not in a position to guarantee that I can adequately fulfill these responsibilities.”

ASAE’s Joint Leadership Committee will meet in June to consider other candidates and nominate a replacement to serve as the 2008-2009 Chairman of ASAE.