How do you assure that your board is fulfilling its legal and operational responsibilities while at the same time keeping your board meetings interesting?
Conducting interesting board meetings is a must if you are going to attract and maintain top-level leadership for your agency. I have written that Board meetings must include at least three important dimensions:
1. Your meetings must inspire Board members to go back to their committees and task forces with a renewed sense of commitment to the Mission of the agency.
2. Your meetings must provide opportunities for board members to develop the skills they need to insure continuity of quality leadership.
3. Each meeting must have at least one item that addresses a key responsibility of the board.
In this blog I will address the last of these dimensions, fulfilling the responsibilities of the board.
Any book on board governance will outline the responsibilities of a nonprofit board. These are probably listed in your board manual. The question I ask my clients is, “How do you fulfill these responsibilities? Do you have a plan to address each issue in a timely manner?” This is where an annual agenda is so important.
Creating an annual agenda is simple.
1. At the beginning of the fiscal or calendar year, review the list of board responsibilities
2. Establish a priority for each; should they be addressed annually, bi-annually or as needed?
3. After this prioritization, select those which need to be addressed annually. Some of these are obvious
• Approve an annual budget, including salaries for staff
• Create a plan to meet the fiscal imperatives to balance the budget, which usually means the creation of a fund development plan
• Nominate a slate of officers and board members for the coming year(s)
• Conduct an annual assessment of the chief executive officer, including the establishment remuneration
4. There may be others that should be done annually:
• Conduct a new board members orientation
• Assess the performance of the current board members
• Evaluate the agency’s program and services
• Evaluate the agency’s operation, including systems, communication, training, staff-board relationships, etc.
• Renew and upgrade the strategic plan
• Conduct an annual board retreat
5. There may be other responsibilities that need to be reviewed bi-annually:
• The Mission and Vision statements
• The Bylaws, including conflict-of-interest statements
By going through this planning process annually, you can create interesting and meaningful board agendas, and do away with the repetitive reports and administrative details which make our board meetings so boring.
Tags: annual agenda, Barrie, Board of Directors