Greenpeace Voting Incestuous

A few days ago, on the Greenpeace US Web site, I perused their By Laws. Click here if you would like to review them. (Why don’t they put this governance information into their Annual Report the way other organizations do?) After reading through the 31 pages, I concluded that Greenpeace US is a very tightly held organization, with the voting process closely controlled by a limited and carefully selected number of people. Let me explain.

Section 2.1a, Selection of Voting Members, states:

The Voting Members of this corporation (referred to in these Bylaws as the “members”) shall consist of those individuals designated by the Board of Directors.

In Section 2.1, the By Laws further state that the Board of Directors will select Voting Members based on their work experience  with Greenpeace US, or other Greenpeace divisions, or on their leadership in the environmental movement, and that the total number of members will be between 40 and 100.

Now, here’s where the incestuousness comes in.

Section 2.3, Rights of Voting Members, says in sub-section A that Voting Members, among other “rights and privileges,” have:

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The right to vote for member-elected directors of the corporation (Greenpeace US) as provided in these Bylaws.

Parentheses mine.

So, it appears here that the Board of Directors select the Voting Members and that the Voting Members select, at least some of, the directors on the board.

Such a governance policy provides for little openness, not much accountability, and sets up a situation where transparency can become clouded.

Again, why is it that Greenpeace US doesn’t publish this type of information in their Annual Report?