Council for Court Excellence

“The draft form 990 is reviewed and approved by the finance committee before it is filed with the internal revenue service. The board of directors is informed of the filing of the form 990 and a copy is provided upon request.”

“Cce's conflict of interest policy is shared with the board members as a part of their orientation materials, and each is asked to complete attachment a, the acknowledgement and disclosure form. We keep a signed copy of the form on file and ask at each board meeting for board members to complete an updated form if there are changes in circumstances. In addition to these oral reminders, staff monitor any professional movements of board leaders to identify any obvious conflicts if not otherwise disclosed.”

“The compensation process for top official executive compensation is determined via a compensation committee, a subcommittee of the finance committee. The compensation committee reviews executive compensation from 3-5 similar organizations. Similar organizations are deemed to be organizations with similar operating budgets that have executive directors with the same academic and experiential qualifications as cce's executive director. While an effort is made at finding similar organizations within the metro dc area, the committee may look at other geographic regions and adjust compensation data found based on comparative cost of living differences. Additionally, cce takes into account the salary the executive director could earn in a governmental or for-profit capacity and uses such compensation range as an upper limit of compensation. The process was last conducted in april 2025.”

“Governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and irs form 990 are made available to the public upon request.”

“The council shall have organization directors and individual directors. The executive committee, for purposes of recommending the amounts for dues or for other purposes, may create other classes of members of the board of directors which may include both organization directors and individual directors. Organization leaders (as such term may be defined by resolution of the executive committee) and individual directors shall be nominated by the nominating committee and elected at any meeting of the board of directors. Each individual director shall serve as a director with one (1)vote on the board of directors. Each organization director shall be an individual who was designated by an organization leader and elected at any meeting of the board of directors. An organization leader shall have the right to designate at least one (1) director, but not more than three (3)directors, to serve on the board of directors, unless another number is approved by the executive committee. An organization leader may designate a director by giving written notice to the president. If an organization leader designates more than one (1) director to serve on the board of directors, such directors shall for all purposes of these by-laws be considered a single director on the board and shall exercise together no more than one (1) vote on the board of directors. Only one (1) director designated by an organization leader shall be allowed to cast a vote on the board of directors. Each organization leader shall cause at least one (1) director to serve on the board of directors at all times during its term as an organization leader.”

“The process has not changed from the prior year.”