Thanks to all of you! I knew this group would have good feedback. Everyone on the board is a volunteer from the membership, this is a small charitable organization. Most members are older (yes, I retired at 63, they are older than me, so that is "older", right?) so the energy is not always there to do a lot.
Robert's Rules of Order - wow, so obvious. We basically followed it at work, when meetings got hijacked it was useful - we used it to force votes, force secret ballot votes, force more recognition of speakers. I use it internally when I run meetings, but I don't know if this group uses it implicitly or explicitly or not at all. Something to find out.
I agree that there needs to be more acknowledgement of terms and roles - this year's executive was better, I think, but again it is implicit, not explicit. And following built-in rules does help - the President appointed a nominations committee (which is in our bylaws) at our last meeting, whereas some years it has simply been the executive saying, "we are back, OK?" or "we are short, volunteers?" which of course is not a good situation either way.
Terms - there is enough happening that one year terms are not very effective, but I can see 3 years as optimum/maximum. Plus when there is a maximum, it forces members to think about replacement.
Again, any books on organization that I can show board members?