(a) The training council shall be composed as follows: three members from the state at large elected by the probate judges at the annual spring business meeting of The Council of Probate Court Judges of Georgia for three-year staggered terms and one member from each judicial administrative district who shall be a judge of the probate court and elected by the judges of the probate courts within the district immediately prior to the annual spring business meeting of The Council of Probate Court Judges of Georgia for a four-year term; provided, however, that the initial members elected from judicial administrative districts 1, 2, and 3 shall serve for two-year terms and the initial members elected from judicial administrative districts 4, 5, and 6 shall serve for three-year terms; provided, further, that, beginning in the spring of 1989, in order to stagger the terms, the initial term of one state-at-large member shall be one year, one shall be two years, and one shall be three years. All members may succeed themselves except for the three state-at-large members. Successors shall be elected in the same manner as the original members immediately prior to the expiration of each member's term of office. The president of The Council of Probate Court Judges of Georgia if not a district or at-large member of the training council shall be a voting member of the training council ex officio.

(b) In the event a vacancy occurs in the membership of the training council as a result of a death, resignation, removal, or failure of reelection as a probate judge, the remaining members of the training council shall elect a qualified person to serve for the remainder of the unexpired term of the member whose seat is vacant. The person elected to fill such vacancy shall take office immediately upon election.