For years, Kansas University athletics was governed by a 24-member board.

Now, the KU Athletic Corp. board consists of six voting members and 18 advisors. The change was made in April, but implementation won’t begin until the fall semester.

Lew Perkins, now in his second year as the Jayhawks’ athletic director, presided over an organizational meeting of the voting members Monday at Parrott Complex.

“We have to figure out what our role is,” Perkins said.

With Jim Pottorff, the university counsel, on hand to deliver legal advice about the KUAC bylaws, the group essentially decided how it will operate in its new two-tiered alignment.

Mike Maddox, a Lawrence banker and an alumni member of the old KUAC board, will chair the 18-member advisory committee. He attended Monday’s meeting as a liaison.

“We’re going to give you feedback,” Maddox said. “Most of the people on the advisory group want to give their input.”

The advisory group primarily will be composed of elected faculty, but also will contain five members appointed by the KU Alumni Association, including Maddox, as well as two students appointed by student body president Steve Munch.

Munch is one of the six voting members. The other five are Perkins, vice provosts Don Steeples and Marlesa Roney, Big 12 Conference faculty representative Don Green and Theresa Klinkenberg, KU’s chief financial officer.

The changes were made to protect the entire board from being sued.

Green, a professor of petroleum engineering, believes streamlining the decision-making process will prove beneficial to KU athletics in the long run.

“I think it could truly work better than before,” Green said.

“I think this will be better for communication and for receiving feedback.”

Maddox likes the current alignment, too, with one exception. He would prefer a makeup of seven voters and 17 advisors, with the additional voting member chosen from among the five alumni now on the advisory committee.

Failing that, Maddox said he would like to include an alumus on one of the new board’s committees — compensation, finance, student support, academics and legislative.

Klinkenberg wondered if such a small board needed to be broken into committees, and it was eventually decided each new board member would head a committee, and the advisory group would be composed of sub-committees in the five areas.

Perkins felt the meeting that lasted more than an hour and a half was a satisfying step forward.

“I think we got a good feel,” Perkins said, “of the interaction of the group.”

The next meeting of the KUAC board will be Sept. 9. The first meeting for the board’s advisory committee, Maddox said, would be Sept. 24.