At a special general meeting of the union last night, Dykes and Dowling were appointed to the selection panel along with deputy mayor Chris Staynes and New Zealand Rugby Union board member Bob Field.
Field, who will represent the NZRU, was a former long-serving chief executive of Toyota New Zealand, while Staynes will represent the Dunedin City Council and Dunedin Venues Management Ltd.
Dowling served on the council of the New Zealand Rugby Union for 11 years, and was its deputy chairman for 1992-93. He was a member of the ORFU management committee for 21 years.
Dykes has been chief executive of the Otago Cricket Association for more than five years and has a background in sports administration.
The panel, chaired by Field, has an intense few weeks ahead.
It will interview board candidates, starting next week.
Nominations close this Friday.
On May 15, the board will formally be appointed and the current board will resign. On the same day, the heads of agreement between the ORFU and major creditors will be finalised and signed off.
The board will be appointed under a new constitution adopted at the meeting last night with no fuss. No delegates from any of the clubs present last night objected to the new constitution, which will eliminate much of the say clubs will have on appointing board members.
Adrian Read, who had been on the board for the past 19 years, has been elected president of the union for the next two years. He takes over from Sir Eion Edgar.
The union was forced into a new constitution as part of its agreement with parties to stave off liquidation.
The new constitution brings in a slimmed-down board, with an observer from both the NZRU and the DCC/DVML.
At the meeting last night, Edgar said out of the 180 small creditors owed money by the union, 165 of them would get their money back in full. All but one creditor had come to agreement with the union.
Deputy chairman of the outgoing board, Laurie Mains, also hit out at criticism made of him at the annual general meeting in February.
Mains strongly rejected the suggestion he had been heavily involved in signing players.
Mains said last night he and fellow board member John Faulks were appointed by the board to oversee the process of signing of players.
But all that involved was players were brought south to meet the coaches for a day.
The coaches would then talk to the union general manger about whether the player would be contracted.
Mains said at no stage was he or Faulks involved in contracting players.
The only exception was with loose forward TJ Ioane, who ended up being voted player of the year by the players, he said.
