(a) The business and affairs of a G&T cooperative shall be managed under the direction of a board of directors of not less than five (5) directors or such greater number as may be prescribed by the bylaws of the G&T cooperative. All of the powers of a G&T cooperative shall be vested in and exercised by the board of directors, except those that are conferred upon or reserved to the members pursuant to this chapter, the charter, bylaws or any other applicable law.

(b) To be eligible to serve, a director shall be a full-time employee of a patron member of the G&T cooperative and shall have senior management level managerial, financial, engineering or administrative responsibilities for the electric system of a patron member of the G&T cooperative. No person holding elective office of any state, county or municipal entity or other political subdivision of any state or of the federal government, and no person whose employment or appointed responsibilities are not principally limited to utility operations of a patron member shall be eligible to serve as a director. Additional eligibility requirements for directors may be established pursuant to the bylaws of the G&T cooperative.

(c) The bylaws shall prescribe the number of directors, their qualifications, if any, in addition to those provided for in subsection (b), the manner of holding meetings of the board and of the election and appointment of successors to directors who shall resign, die or otherwise be incapable of or disqualified from acting, and any other rule, manner, procedure or matter relating to the board and its exercise of the powers conferred upon it by this chapter or by other law, the charter of the G&T cooperative or the bylaws.

(d) The bylaws shall provide the manner and method by which directors shall be elected or appointed, as applicable. The bylaws may establish classes of directors to be elected and divide them into classes for terms of office that permit either approximately one half (½), one third (⅓), or one fourth (¼) to be elected each year by the members; provided, that the initial bylaws may provide for a period of time during which the initial board of directors specified in the charter or the initial bylaws shall serve for the purposes of allowing continuity during a start-up period specified in the bylaws, which start-up period may be contingent upon the anticipated date of commencement of both ownership and direct operations and direct control of a plant for the generation of electrical power and energy to be acquired, constructed or operated, all as may be more specifically described in the bylaws.

(e) Directors may, but only if so provided in a G&T cooperative's bylaws, be removed and their successors elected under such process as may be provided in the bylaws.