Effective Board Development

Conducting ongoing development of the board is one of the most important responsibilities the board has to the organization.  This task includes identifying and recruiting prospective board members, ensuring that new members are adequately oriented to the organization as they begin their work, and continuing activities throughout their tenure that allow members to expand their base of knowledge, skill and commitment.

Nancy Roche in The Art of Governance captures essence of the board development through these best practices:

Board Orientation and Training

Conducting a board orientation for new board members is an excellent way to jump start their board service and ensure that they have a clear understanding of the organization and feel a part of it.  It is a key step in building a team of individuals working together toward a shared goal.

An orientation should involve all new board members, key board and staff leadership.  Board members, as well as staff, need to take a role in sharing information about the organization’s programming, history, organizational structure, finances, board responsibilities and expectations, board rules and operations, and strategic directions with new members.  Members need to get acquainted with the basic issues that face the organization, the board culture and style.  In addition to being informational, the orientation needs to include time for members to get to know each other personally.

A binder of key organizational documents is helpful to complement the orientation and provides a good reference tool for new members.  Suggested contents for the binder:

Orientation and attention to the newest members of the organizational family need not stop with this initial meeting.  Creating a mentoring or buddy system – pairing a new director with a veteran director – can be helpful in making the new member feel welcome and answer questions that come up.  Some organizations require new members to serve on particular committees in their initial year to gain familiarity with the organization.  For example, a community music school or arts center providing ongoing classes might have new members serve on an education committee and require members to sit in on classes as part of their responsibility.  Making a point of checking in with a new member during the year to find out how they are doing will help you monitor their progress in becoming an active working member of the board.

While you continue to provide opportunities for new members to “come up to speed”, don’t neglect the development of your longer tenured members.  Provide opportunities for all members to learn; some organizations have integrated into board meetings presentations or discussions on pertinent issues to the organization - artistic or operational – or its particular artistic field.  Others encourage board member participation in workshop and training sessions or attendance at local, state or national conferences.

Committees

Using committees can be a very effective way for organizations to more efficiently use the expertise of its board members and handle areas that require more attention than can be afforded by the entire board.  Although at early stages of development, the board often acts as a committee of the whole, at some point it becomes less practical and useful to operate in this fashion.

Generally for ongoing, major activities of the organization, standing committees are established.  These often include, but are not exclusive to the Executive, Programming/Artistic, Board Development (Nominating), Finance, Marketing, Personnel, or Fundraising/Development Committees.  These are normally listed and defined in the bylaws.  For dealing with short term or special issues, ad hoc committees might be formed.  This type of committee stays in place until its particular charge is completed.  For example, an ad hoc committee might be formed to plan and implement a benefit, particular program, or marketing campaign.  In any case, what committees an organization might have at any given point in its development should be determined by the organization’s needs.  An organization should never be afraid to reevaluate its committee structure and take appropriate action – eliminate, revise or add – as necessary.

A Board committee's primarily responsibility is to recommend policy to the full board.  The committee should meet on a schedule that meets the needs of the organization and fits appropriately within the work of the Board.  For example, the organization’s annual budget should be presented and approved prior to the start of a new fiscal year.  To meet that deadline, the Finance Committee may need to meet every two weeks for a couple months prior to the Board meeting in order to insure that the budget is ready for full Board consideration and meet bi-monthly the rest of the year to oversee the organization’s finances.  Committees are normally chaired by a board member and need to have at least two people (or else it’s not a committee) but not so many that it bogs down its ability to complete its specific responsibilities in a timely manner.  Some organizations include non-board members on their committees.  This is a good practice to help bolter expertise and provide a “farm team” opportunity for potential board members.  In addition, this allows individuals who have interest in the organization and expertise to share, but also have busy schedules and limited time, a meaningful way to contribute without having to join the board and making a regular and long term commitment.

To help coordinate committee work it is useful to prepare an annual chart and calendar of ongoing committee work that can be shared with the entire board.  For each committee key activities and deadlines, as well as board meeting and annual meeting dates are noted in a consolidated format.  This tool is particularly helpful in a number of different ways for the small organization.  As a communication tool, it helps committees understand how their work fits into the larger framework of the organization’s work and where one committee’s work intersects and is dependent upon another.  It gives committees deadlines for when work needs to be completed and recommendations are to be submitted to the full board.  Finally, it provides an accounting of the regular work of the board that can be updated annually, but used year to year to schedule its work and ensure that key tasks are completed in a timely way.

Improving Board Meetings

Meetings are the meat and potatoes of board work, yet often times they become one of the major obstacles to fully engage board members in attending, as well as participating in board meetings. Jan Masaoka of Compasspoint offers ten quick ways to improve board meetings.

Dynamics of the Board Staff Team

One area that can be sticky for an organization to navigate is the relationship between the board and the staff and maintenance of team working in unison for the benefit of the organization.  Although this dynamic will continually shift as the organization changes and matures and it needs to be constantly monitored, Jill Baldwin’s schematic in “The Board Staff Team: Why Board Members Serve and How Nonprofits Benefit” (.doc) provides a structured starting point for understanding what each brings to the table on behalf of the organization and what each might expect from the other.