20 steps to a better 1st board meeting
TRANSCRIPT
By: Tom Okarma
The Kickoff: 20 Steps to a Better 1st Board Meeting
How can you make the first board meeting of
the year effective, engaging, and use it to set the stage for a great year?
Every board begins the new year with plenty of excitement, anticipation, and
passion around the cause.
You and your team worked hard identifying new candidates, qualifying, interviewing, and recruiting them onto the board. And now here they are, all
sitting around the boardroom table looking at you as your first board meeting begins. They are
looking for direction, for purpose, for leadership. What should you do?
How you can make 2016 your agency’s best year ever?
How can you get your new board up and running quickly and operating like a well-
oiled machine? Effective nonprofits always have effective boards. I am convinced that if a nonprofit agency is not making the impact it wants, it is usually due to an ineffective,
underperforming board.
Many new directors were just
recently elected.
With a new role often comes confusion about what the individual and team are
supposed to do. Since new directors may be reluctant to get engaged quickly, I want to provide you with insight on how to set the stage for success at the first board meeting
of the year.
1. Every board member needs to know exactly what is expected of them, both individually and as a part of the board.
The two most important things to remember are these:
2. Every board member needs to understand the processes, protocols or practices, of the board, and be familiar with the cultural style of the board itself.
There are several topics you should cover at this first board meeting to insure your board gets off to a strong
united start as quickly as possible.
TheKickoff
List
20 Critical Elements to Includeat Your 1st 2016 Board Meeting
1. Discuss what worked very well last year and should be retained in the new year. What failed and needs to be changed in the new year.
2. Were there any ”lessons learned” from last year that the new board should be told?
20 Critical Elements to Includeat Your 1st 2016 Board Meeting
3. Get them engaged quickly. Assign each director to at least one committee and appoint experienced boards members with leadership skills as chair.
4. Have the board chair and Executive Director discuss the plan of how to conduct business and operate, protocols to be followed, etc.
20 Critical Elements to Includeat Your 1st 2016 Board Meeting
5. Review the purpose of each committee and what major issues it has, or may face this year. Be sure to include meeting dates, expectations, and protocols.
6. Review benchmarks, standards, and attendance requirements (or expectations).
20 Critical Elements to Includeat Your 1st 2016 Board Meeting
7. Review your expectations of the directors individually and as a whole.
8. Review board vs. staff roles and position descriptions, especially if there have been challenges with overlap or boundaries in the past.
20 Critical Elements to Includeat Your 1st 2016 Board Meeting
9. Review expectations for the coming year — goals, strategy, and metrics used for measuring success and progress.
10. Review director job descriptions and important dates like board and committee meetings, board retreats, major events, etc.
20 Critical Elements to Includeat Your 1st 2016 Board Meeting
11. If your agency is evolving from a start up to an established one, discuss how board duties shift from a startup (where it’s all hands on deck) to a bigger nonprofit, where it provides more oversight, allowing the staff to take over most operations.
12. Review important concepts like Mission, Vision, Values, key strategic initiatives, conflict of interest, fund-raising duties, meeting attendance and preparation, fiduciary duties, accountability, risk management, and other important items.
20 Critical Elements to Includeat Your 1st 2016 Board Meeting
13. Ask directors to describe what an effective board looks like and how it operates. Be sure to incorporate these ideas into your processes.
14. Ask directors to provide examples of what they feel are appropriate board best practicesfor the agency to follow.
20 Critical Elements to Includeat Your 1st 2016 Board Meeting
15. Decide how decisions will be made. Will the basis be by consensus, majority, plurality, or unanimously, or might different level issues be decided using a different criteria?
16. Discuss your intent to stay in touch periodically thru breakfasts, lunches, phone calls, etc.
20 Critical Elements to Includeat Your 1st 2016 Board Meeting
17. Remind them to be looking for specific type board candidates to fill next year’s slate, based on directors whose terms are expiring that year.
18. Confirm board mentor/mentee assignments. Pair new board members with those that have been around longer, to help the on-boarding process.
20 Critical Elements to Includeat Your 1st 2016 Board Meeting
19. Share with them any issues you specifically want their help with in the coming year.
20. Ask for feedback of your prior year performance or provide the board with your action plan in response to your recent review.
While it may be difficult to include all of these 20 items in your first board meeting, you will find that if you follow this
list, you will see impressive results from your board of
directors, in far less time.
New team members want to know what is expected of them, how they fit into the organization, and what they can do to
make a difference.
Does your new board have what it takesto push your nonprofit to the next level?
Find out, with the Break Through quiz.
This presentation is
To read the full article about1st board meeting success
and to get free resources, visit
TomOkarma.com
20 Critical Elements to Includeat Your 1st 2016 Board Meeting