Initiatives Prince George is cutting out the middle man when it comes to board appointments.

City council approved the economic development arm's new governance policy Monday night, which streamlines their process for making nominations to the board of directors.

The previous governance model made reference to Progress Prince George, a volunteer group co-chaired by the mayor whose responsibilities included providing benchmark comparisons, strategic advice to improve the city's economy and nominating people for council's approval to sit on the IPG board.

Within the new policy, a committee from within the board will take on nomination duties, which economic development manager Tara Bogh said will make the process more efficient.

"The new governance policy for us is totally in keeping with the best practice governance policies for similar organizations," she said.

The board make up remains the same, with nine members appointed to two-year terms, but the minimum amount of meetings has been reduced from 10 per year to six.

Progress PG's other responsibilities included issuing yearly reports benchmarking the city's economic progress in comparison to other communities and providing strategic advice to improve the Prince George economy.

However, IPG now has the internal capacity to provide those benchmark updates in house, and does so every month, Bogh explained.

The update to IPG's governance policy comes with an update to their articles of incorporation, which were said to be outdated.

Last December, council approved a new service agreement with the agency with the expectation that these other changes would be forthcoming.