There are 6 members on a board of directors. If they must elect a chairperson, a secretary, and a treasurer, how many different slates of candidates are possible?

a. 216

b. 20

c. 120

d. 720

The answer is c. 120

You need to go step by step.

For the chairperson you have six possibilities.

For the secretary you now have only five

And for the treasurer you are now down to six.

Now that means that. For each person elected as chairperson there’s 5 possibilities for the secretary (so 6X5) but there’s also 4 for the treasurer. You end up with an equation The is 6x5x4 = 120