Three Questions Your Board Members Really Need to Know. Five Tips for Better Board Packets. Having been both an executive director and a board president, I'm on both sides of the board packet question.
I know the staff's temptation to send a ton of stuff, the better to inform and impress the board. I also know the board member's tendency to run out of time to read the material, but still to be annoyed if the materials are either late or questionably useful. More than 50 Blue Avocado readers sent in their comments about what they like -- and can't stand! -- in board meeting packets. Two striking takeaways: board members feel disrespected when board packets are late or sloppy, and feel railroaded when background information isn't included for an upcoming decision.
The angry comments from board members over irrelevant or unexplained materials reflect anger over the message they are getting from staff about how the staff values and respects the board's ability, authority, and responsibility to make decisions. More specifically: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. And a cool tip See also in Blue Avocado:
Executive Director/CEO. Board Governance. Diversity. Advisory Boards. Nonprofit Conflict of Interest: A 3-Dimensional View. Most nonprofit discussions about conflicts of interest are similar to those in the for-profit sector: they focus on financial benefit to board members or staff to the detriment of the nonprofit organization.
The classic examples: the nonprofit buys something unnecessary or overpriced from a board member's business, or the nonprofit hires an unqualified, overpaid family member of the executive director. But nonprofit conflicts of interest are often more subtle, more multi-dimensional, and more unexpected than these classic examples. For instance, what about the board member who also sits on the board of a competitor? Is this a good idea that facilitates collaboration or does it pull that person in two different directions? What about relatives of the executive director who hold important staff positions . . . but as volunteers? None of these situations fits the classic conflict-of-interest model that is firmly anchored in financial benefit. Classic conflict of interest 1. 2. Board of directors. By Bunnie Riedel, Host I’ve never met a “strategic plan” that I liked.
Mostly because I see them as a horrific waste of time. It may make a nonprofit board feel good to sit in a room for a couple of days and dream up new and exotic ideas for what the organization should be doing, but rarely do strategic plans (done the typical way) turn into anything but dust collectors. And don’t get me started on mission statements. Some boards want to change their mission statements every couple of years. But I digress. Back to strategic planning. A few years ago, some portions of the federal government decided to change out how they classify their employees. I even sat next to a woman on a plane whose full time job it was to go around the country and have meetings with Navy personnel to educate them about the new system. So about one year into the new pay band system, portions of the federal government decided it wasn’t working and they were going to go back to the old way of grades and steps.