an intentional approach to land trust board development
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An Intentional Approach to Land Trust Board Development. Presented by Henrietta Jordan Trailmarker Associates. Imagine: - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Presented by Henrietta JordanTrailmarker Associates
Imagine: What if the board you serve
on was THE board that transformed the
organization, that took it to a new level of effectiveness,
that future boards looked back on and said, “that was the board that made all the
difference”?
Board development = the creation of a highly effective
board of directors.
What are the attributes of a highly effective
board?
A highly effective land trust board understands that its role is to govern the organization through the creation and implementation of good policies and the making of sound decisions
that advance the land trust’s mission.
Board members come to board meetings prepared to have substantive discussions
and make decisions in a thoughtful and deliberative
manner.
They are active between meetings
as committee members, task/project leaders, volunteers, fundraisers, and ambassadors
for their organizations.
If they have staff, they work in partnership
with the executive director, providing vision, guidance,
direction, and financial resources.
They recruit and engage new board members
who represent the community the land trust serves and provide them
with the training and experiences they need to
assume leadership roles in the organization.
They have outgrown their dependence on the founder and share responsibility for
building institutional knowledge, setting direction,
planning, and evaluating programs and their own performance as a board.
They operate with transparency and
scrupulously manage conflicts of interest and
conflicts of loyalty.
They are curious, open to challenges and
differences of opinion, flexible, and committed
to the well-being of the
organization and the achievement of its goals.
They are willing to risk trying new things and
things they didn’t think they’d want to do, like
fundraising, negotiating with landowners, public speaking, and writing
grant applications.
They understand that just as a land trust is a steward of land, they are stewards
of their organization. They plan for their own
succession and intentionally create a
foundation of effectiveness for future boards.
Other attributes?
Wow. How do we build a board
like that?
First things first.
Make building an effective board your top priority.
If you can accomplish this primary goal, realizing all your other ones will be a
piece of cake
Assess where you are now: board self-evaluation and
board member self-evaluation.
Plan! Set goals for board
development, just as you set goals for programs and
fundraising.
Assign responsibility for board development to a
committee—and don’t saddle its
members with too many other jobs.
Develop a board member job description that clearly states your expectations for engagement,
meeting attendance, committee work, training,
and financial support.
Develop a board manual with organizational history, board and staff
directory, bylaws, statement of vision & values, goals and plan, description of
programs and conserved lands, budget info, description of funding sources, minutes of
board meetings for the past 6 months or so, policies and procedures, information on Land
Trust Alliance, MLTN, and the Learning Center, and outreach info such as brochure,
newsletter, recent press articles, links to website and social media.
Prune dead wood. If they’re not accomplishing
anything, they’re probably looking for
an exit anyway.
Bring in new members who represent the
community you’re trying ‘to serve.
Other ideas?
Where do we find those
new board members?
Ask: Why would they want to engage
with your organization?
Young parents – activities for kids.
Schoolteachers – educational programs.
New residents – want to get involved in
the community and meet people.
Hiking, birding, fishing, other outdoor groups who have a stake in what you’re doing.
Environmentally conscious residents concerned about
saving open space/preserving community
character/protecting water quality/sequestering
carbon/promoting local foods and farms, etc.
Church groups – people interested in
“creation care.”
College and university instructors:
GIS mapping, community and urban
planning, environmental policy, natural resource planning and conservation, agriculture, etc.
Singles – looking for a social outlet and
opportunities to meet people.
Other ideas?
Board members want to feel that their
time is well-spent.
The most important tool you can give them:
information necessary for good decision-making.
The “how” as well as the “what”:
bylaws, board manual, policies, guidelines, etc.
In the agenda: “Board action needed. . .
”
Committee reports in writing.
“What are you asking me to do?”
(i.e. review, comment, decide, advise?)
In-service mini-trainings
Opportunities to go to Rally
Recognition
Other ideas?
Financial literacy:
All board members need to be able to read and understand the budget, the statement of activities (profit/loss) and the statement of financial position
(balance sheet).
Assume they don’t know and provide an annual in-service on financial statements.
Develop accounting procedures that
provide for sufficient segregation of duties—
and follow them.
Review the audit (or financial review) and
Form 990 carefully and ask questions!
Fiduciary responsibility means
YOU are the watchdog. If you don’t
understand, ask questions!
Land conservation literacyAll board members need to
understand why and how they undertake conservation
projects and what the land trust’s ongoing stewardship
responsibilities are.
Training (and policy): •Using project selection criteria•Exercising due diligence in investigating potential projects •Legally sound transactions•Recordkeeping•Understanding IRS and state requirements, stewardship and defense funding
• Baseline documentation• Monitoring conservation
restrictions and preserves• Enforcing conservation restrictions• Amending conservation restrictions• Developing management plans for
fee properties• Resolving fee property issues such
as trespass, dumping, ATVs, etc.
Personnel management literacy
Job descriptions
Workplans
Personnel policies
Supervision and evaluation of theexecutive director
Understanding of federal and state
labor laws and fair employment
statutes
Understanding of payroll taxes, unemployment compensation,
workers comp, & disability insurance requirements
Establishing appropriate compensation
(salary, benefits, etc.)
Planning literacyWhat do you need for a
strategic plan? A Cadillac or a Ford?
Ford = 3-5 year plan with history of organization,
mission, vision, goals, and strategies. Action steps for each strategy with “point person” and timetable.
Budget.
Annual workplans for board, committees, staff
Process for evaluating, fine-tuning
Managing conflict
We all bring our “stuff” wherever we go.
“Board members behaving badly” – an inevitable
growing pain of an organization.
President or chair MUST intervene.
“Let’s have lunch”
Pay more attention to the folks who are pulling their weight and doing the work than to those who are only
complaining.
What do your bylaws say?
The process of “firing” a dysfunctional board member
will be painful but the sweet peace that follows
makes it all worth it.
Now what?
What will YOU do first to make your board more
effective?
You CAN have the board you would love
to be a member of!