Spouses on Nonprofit Board of Directors-FL

[uk2usa]

Florida: Can spouses serve on the board of a non-profit board of directors? It's a Little League board and, while I have yet to find a specific rule excluding spouses, surely the Sunshine Law prohibits this. I cannot imagine a situation where spouses will not discuss board matters at home--especially these two spouses, who go out of their way to blacklist a few kids and parents in order to lessen the competition for their not particularly skilled sons.

 

[miawareness76]

****I am not an attorney****

The IRS discourages family members from being on the board together because of possible "self dealing" issues that can arise, however they do not prohibit the practice. To my knowledge, there is no law that states that this cannot be done but it is routinely discouraged because of the liability that could be involved. I would suggest that you dig into the local state laws on non profit board members to see if there are any specific laws to your state the prohibit such, I have locally done the same at my location and have merely found references to self dealing issues but no prohibitions. You might also want to look up their articles of incorporation through your secretary of the state website, and see if they have any rules as to how the board members are elected or appointed and so on. Good luck