CEO Network Eligibility
Over the years, CMA has run many events targeted at CEOs. We have regularly received feedback from CEOs that there needs to be a distinction between things that are for CEOs only, and things that are of interest to CEOs but may also have a wider appeal. The feedback has been clear that when something is designed to be a safe place for candid sharing and interaction among CEOs, the value is erased if we permit others into the room who do not personally function in that unique CEO space as the only staff member in the boardroom AND the only board representative in the staff room. (And yes, even that sentence is not universally applicable!).
Over those years, a number of people have held CEO-like roles and sought to be included in CEO-only gatherings, which has on occasion caused some CEOs to question why we advertised something as CEOs Only and then didn’t enforce the criteria. As a result, and at the request of CEOs around the country, we have decided to be more specific about the eligibility criteria for the CMA CEO Network, and for any events or activities that may arise out of it that are exclusively for CEOs.
For the purposes of admission to the CMA CEO Network:
Ineligible – These roles are generally not considered to be CEO Roles and thus do not satisfy the CEO-only eligibility criteria:
- CEOs of business enterprises that have no staff, or just one or two staff. Most businesses usually don’t have boards, and if there is no board and almost no staff, it is not really a CEO role.
- CEOs of small entities where the CEO role is less than 0.6 FTE.
- Partner of a professional firm – only the Managing Partner is considered a CEO.
- Leader of a small group of consultants unless the role is formally designated as CEO with CEO-level authority.
- Deputy CEO.
- CEO of a subsidiary or department or project where the parent organisation’s CEO is the main one who reports directly to the board, or where the parent organisation’s CEO has the authority to terminate the employment of the subsidiary / department / project CEO.
- Acting or Interim CEO while another person is still officially the CEO, even that person is not presently on duty.
- General Manager with “CEO” title but who reports to a regional/national CEO.
- Retired CEO.
- CEO of a family business where family members effectively make board-level decisions.
- C-Suite executive other than CEO who attends board meetings and manages most of the operations.
- Advisor or Coach to CEOs.
- Executive Chair if a separate CEO exists.
- Two Co-CEOs. (Only one of the CEOs may be in the network).
Eligible – these roles are considered to be CEO Roles and thus meet the CEO-only eligibility criteria:
- CEOs in organisations that have boards and staff, in the regular sense of the word, whether in a Christian or secular organisation, including Senior Pastors and School / College Principals who answer directly to the Board.
- CEOs in organisations that have boards, but where the organisation doesn’t yet have additional staff.
- Acting or Interim CEOs where the previous CEO has departed, a new one has not been appointed yet, and the Acting or Interim CEO has been formally designated in that role.
- Registrar of a Diocese who fulfills all the usual functions of a CEO where the Bishop (or similar) doesn’t make the typical CEO-like decisions. Either the Bishop or the Registrar may join the network, but not both.
- Executive Chair if there is no other person acting in the role of CEO.
CMA may exercise its discretion on rare occasions to admit someone to the Network who doesn’t 100% fit these criteria, but whose presence in the Network is considered by CMA to be to the benefit of Network members.
