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Governance
A Ten-Step Checklist for Board Recruitment
By Cynthia Armour
Canadian Fundraiser: March 15, 2001
1. Your mission is your lighthouse (a beacon in the fog)
Clearly express your agency's reason for being and make it pervasive
in your organization before you look for people who can help achieve
long-term goals. (Placing your mission on all board agencies reminds
members where to focus their efforts and votes.)
2. Anticipate Board turn over-well before the AGM
Define your agency's succession strategy, including identification
of suitable candidates, script for inviting potential nominees,
interview process, selection criteria and who is responsible for
ensuring the plan is accomplished.
3. Articulate the agency's culture
Determine and explain the culture of your organization. What stage
is the agency at in its life span? What's the lone at the top? Communicate
your philosophy on governance, board code of conduct and how it's
monitored, oriented for new members, availability of training, conflict
of interest policy, board/staff relationship, how the board will
be evaluated, and how stewardship of donors and funds will be fulfilled.
4. Know your priorities
Conduct a needs assessment to identify what your agency's priorities
are for the next one to three years. What type of leaders will you
need to achieve your goals?
5. Identify gaps
Assess the skills and experience of your existing board-do you have
a lot of dedicated 'service-providing' individuals who may be weak
in leadership and management? Target individuals who have the ability
to fill the gaps (e.g) in fundraising, marketing. Make sure there
is a broad representation of abilities, ages, gender, cultural diversity,
connections and talents on your board.
6. Go beyond 'the pulse'
Good prospective board members have more than a heart beat! Use
the same tools for board identification you would for identifying
possible donors.
- Linkage (there is a personal contact)
- Ability (the individual has the time and financial means if
you expect board donations.)
- Interest (you know enough about the prospect to know what's
needed to attract them to your cause.)
7. Definite tasks
Have written job descriptions for all board positions and use them
with prospective board members (including fundraising if it's a
requirement.) By defining your expectations (responsibilities, terms
of office, time commitment, benefits, evaluation measures) prior
to recruitment, the individual can accept (or refuse) with full
knowledge of those expectations.
8. Know where to find suitable candidates
Solicit nominations and applications from your community. Gather
well-connected people (who, you suspect, wouldn't join your board)
for a 'one-meeting nominating committee'. Inform them of your mission
and invite them to suggest friends or colleagues who could be suitable
members. Your fundraising or resource development committee is a
wonderful place to 'audition' future board members. Finally, donors
may be a useful source (provided their skills match your needs)-and
you won't have to convince them to contribute.
9. Be Selective
Interview prospective individuals before inviting them to join.
Here are some questions to consider:
- "What do you see as the board's role in this organization?"
- "What do you fell is the board's role in fundraising?"
- "What leadership role might you assume over the next three
year period?"
- "What motivates you?"
- "What would you like our of membership on the board?"
10. Learn from your experience and strive to improve the
process
Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your recruitment strategy.
Ask for feedback from new members and recruiters to determine if
the message received matched the one that was sent. Revisit job
descriptions to be sure that the information they contain is accurate.
WHAT TO DO WITH BOARD MEMBERS THAT WON'T DO ANYTHING
"He/She never comes to meetings or does anything. Why does
he/she even stay on the board?".
Q. Whose responsibility is it to "do something" about
a board member who is "deadwood," undependable, a procrastinator,
or worse?
Answer: Yours!
Every board member shares in the responsibility to involve each
board member in contributing to the well-being of the board and
the organization. If you're the board president or an officer, your
responsibilities include monitoring non-participation and intervening
with board members when necessary. In some cases you may need to
talk with the executive director about improving the way he or she
works with board members. If you're the executive director, you
may need to discuss the situation with board leadership.
There are two things you must do in the case of a board member
who is not participating.
First, you must do something. The problem is likely only to get
worse, and non-participating board members have a demoralizing impact
on even the best of boards.
Second, be confident and hopeful. Many board members just need
a little reminder to be more conscientious, and others will be grateful
that you've given them a graceful way to relinquish tasks or even
leave the board. Things will work out.
Short Term Strategies
- Check to be sure that expectations were made clear to the board
member before he or she joined the board. "I know you joined
the board recently and I'm not sure that you realize that we ask
all board members to attend the annual dinner and, hopefully,
to help sell tickets. Let me explain to you what most board members
do, so you can see whether you'll be able to work on this with
us."
- Hold a board discussion at which expectations are reconsidered
are re-affirmed. Agree on a list of expectations for every board
member.
- Be sensitive to possible health issues or personal reasons why
a good board member isn't participating as much as he or she has
in the past.
- Transfer responsibilities to someone else. "I'm concerned
about finishing the revision to the personnel policies. Since
you're so busy, it would work out for the best if John took your
notes on the policies and developed a first draft."
- Together with the board member, explore whether he or she really
has the time right now to be able to be an active board member.
"I'm calling to check in with you since you haven't been
able to make a meeting in the last several months. Are you just
temporarily a lot busier than usual? We really want to have your
participation, but if it isn't realistic, perhaps we should see
if there's a less time consuming way than board membership for
you to be involved."
Longer Term Strategies
Make it possible for individuals to take a "leave of absence"
from the board if they have health, work, or other reasons why they
cannot participate fully for awhile. An individual can, for example,
take a "6 month maternity leave" or a "disability
leave."
- Have a board discussion or a written board survey on what makes
it difficult for people to participate fully. "Are there
things we can change about the frequency, day, time, or length
of board meetings that would make it easier for you to attend?"
Are there things about the way the board meetings are conducted
that would make it easier for you to attend or that would give
you more reason to want to attend?."
- Consider whether board participation is meaningful to board
members. Have lunch with some of the "semi-active" members
and/or the executive director: "I'm sensing that board participation
just isn't as substantive or significant as some board members
want it to be. What do you think are the reasons, and what do
you think we can do to make board membership more meaningful.
- Revise what is expected of board members. Perhaps responsibilities
have been given to a board member that is unrealistic for any
but the super-board-member. Reduce the number of committees and
utilize short-term task forces instead. Redesign jobs and responsibilities
to fit the ability of a busy achiever to accomplish them.
Adapted from an article by Jan Masaoka.
This article is reprinted with permission from BOARD CAFÉ,
a free newsletter for members of nonprofit boards, published by
CompassPoint Nonprofit Services.
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