Managing Your Board

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Managing Your Board

• John Brothers, Cuidiu Consulting -
  john_at_cuidiuconsulting.com
• David M. LaGreca, Volunteer Consulting Group,
  Inc. dlagreca_at_vcg.org
• 16 August 2008

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Managing Your Board

• This session is designed to improve and enhance
  the relationship between organizational leaders
  and their board of directors. The emphasis is on
  strategies and tools for improving board
  functioning and board/staff relations. Topics
  include clarifying roles and responsibilities
  increasing board involvement in planning and
  resource development, the Board Chairs role in
  managing the board and the act of hand holding
  your board of directors. 

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Workshop Agenda

• Introductions Who is Here Why?
• How Does Your Board Function?
• The Challenge
• The Human Resource Function in Managing Your
  Board
• Role of the Board Board Members
• Board Members Responsibilities Benefits
• Committees? A Rationale
• Managing the Gang
• Role of the Board Chair Motivating the Group
• Successful Meeting Strategy
• Sample Board Member Review Form
• Q A

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How Does Your Board Function

• Issues?
• Challenges?

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THE CHALLENGE Issues Facing NYC Nonprofit Boards

• Providing direction and policies
• Complying with anticipated new state regulations
• Finding a competent Executive Director
• Involving the diverse population in governance
• Using trustees talents for maximum effectiveness
• Finding board members who can devote the
  necessary amount of time
• Having sufficient insurance and risk management
  plans
• Keeping informed of pertinent issues and being
  willing to make decisions
• Managing conflicts
• Holding board members accountable

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The HR Function in Managing Your Board

• Research 100 corporate executives places on
  nonprofit boards.
• Issues
• Expectations vague
• What defines success as a board member
• Feedback loops
• Hot romance/cold match syndrome

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Role of the Board Board Members

• Know why the organization exists..and annually
  review why it should.
• Interpret the organization's work to the public
  in words of two syllables.
• Combine a sense of obligation with a sense of
  humor.
• Give moneyor get itor both

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Board Member Responsibilities Benefits
Size The Board of Directors currently consists
of 18 members. of Board Meetings The Board
meets six (6) times each fiscal
year.Committees Board Committees include
Executive, Finance Administration, Program,
Resource Development (Fundraising) and Board
Development (Nominating). RESPONSIBILITIESBoard
Members think about the whole organization.
Board members are concerned with the larger
picture and the longer range. They develop a
full understanding of what Recovery, Inc. is,
appreciate its unique programs, and have a full
commitment to its vision. They make sure that
all services and activities of the organization
are consistent with the mission. Board members
ensure that the work gets down. This is a
twofold responsibility. First, board members
fulfill their own duties as officers, committee
chairs or committee members. Second, they
delegate tasks to other board committees, staff
and volunteers as appropriate. Board members
ensure that needed funds are available to meet
the annual board approved budget. They are
responsible to see that the work to raise money
is done. Each board member will make an annual
contribution to the organization according to
their means. Board members regularly attend
board meetings. Board members assure that legal
and corporate requirements are met. Recovery,
Inc. is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.
This requires the filing of tax form 990, pay
payroll taxes, and abide by numerous other
regulations (ADA, EEO, etc.). Board members hire
and evaluate the Executive Director. The board
evaluates the Executive Director annually on the
basis of the job description and the extent to
which the organizations mission is
advanced.Board members learn about and mentor
each other they evaluate their collective
performance. Board members relate well to RIs
staff. The board acts in partnership with the
staff to accomplish the organizations mission.
Board members serve as officers, committee heads
or committee members. Board members say what
they mean and mean what they say. PROCEDURESRI
provides, without request, bi-monthly and
semi-annual financial reports that permit board
members to meet legal requirements. RI. allows
board members to interact with the appropriate
staff to discuss policies and programs, goals
and objectives.RI provides an opportunity for
board members to understand the organizations
programs and methodologies.
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Committees? A rationale

• Humans do not work well in large herds!
• Committees provide a forum where board members
  with relevant expertise and experience can give
  focused attention to the policy decisions
  confronting the organization.
• Board success comes from dividing the tasks at
  hand and allowing everyone to own a piece of it
• Committees are responsible for preparing
  information for distribution in advance of the
  meeting
• Committees are to be considered work groups, and
  should meet accordance with the timeliness of the
  issues and the schedules of the people involved.
• Each committee should have a specific scope of
  responsibility, and a schedule for its
  deliverables.
• WARNING Committees do not take over the
  Boards ultimate decision making responsibility,
  except for matters specifically delegated to them.

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Motivating the Gang

• How do you keep a group of passionate volunteers
  moving forward in service to your organizations
  mission?

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Role of the Chair Chief Motivator!

• Enthusiasm builds on SUCCESS
• How clearly stated is the board job description
  (see next slide)
• What is the feedback mechanism for sharing
  performance information with each board member?
• Work em hard--and early
• Review them often!
• Who provides feedback?
• Make sure that board members are ambassadors for
  your organization--let them chirp!
• Pithy mission statement
• Working your avocation into conversations

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Motivating the gang! Successful Meeting Strategy

• Planning
• Axiom 1 - Have a planno plan, no meeting!
  (DANGER Board Packets)
• Working
• Axiom 2 - Sitting on a board means workby board
  members and not just the staff. (DANGER Doing
  Your Own Stuff!)
• Learning
• Axiom 3 - Give board members a chance to learn
  something at each meeting
• Deciding
• Axiom 4 - Make sure that a decision about
  something is made at each meeting (DANGER Bad
  Decisions Poorly Made)
• Connecting
• Axiom 5 - Allow board members time to get to know
  one another at each meeting.
• Speaking
• Axiom 6 - A happy board is one where each board
  member speaks at each meetingbut not too little
  or too much! (DANGER Solo Performances)
• Acting
• Axiom 7 - The brain can only absorb what the
  backside can endure!
• Enjoying
• Axiom 8 - Board service can be fun, interesting
  and exciting.

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Motivating the gang! Sample Board Member Review

• Review of previous years experience as a trustee
• Satisfaction/high points?
• Were expectations met?
• How do you feel the Board as a whole is
  functioning?
• Any suggestions for improving the boards working
  relationships.
• Assignments Committees, Special Tasks
• Review of past year
• Assignments for upcoming year
• Personal Commitment
• Financial commitment, event attendance, etc.
• Cultivation activities (contact lists for
  solicitation, hosting receptions, making thank
  you calls, introductions to prospective donors,
  etc.)
• Access to resources vendors, in-kind gifts,
  etc.
• Special Interests (e.g., program volunteering,
  etc.)
• Trustee goals for the board for the coming year
• What progress would you like to see the board
  make over the coming year to make it more
  effective?

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Resources Sample Trustee Interview Guide

• Review of previous years experience as a trustee
• Satisfaction/high points?
• Were expectations met?
• How do you feel the Board as a whole is
  functioning?
• Any suggestions for improving the boards working
  relationships.
• Assignments Committees, Special Tasks
• Review of past year
• Assignments for upcoming year
• Personal Commitment
• Financial commitment, event attendance, etc.
• Cultivation activities (contact lists for
  solicitation, hosting receptions, making thank
  you calls, introductions to prospective donors,
  etc.)
• Access to resources vendors, in-kind gifts,
  etc.
• Special Interests (e.g., program volunteering,
  etc.)
• Trustee goals for the board for the coming year
• What progress would you like to see the board
  make over the coming year to make it more
  effective?

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Sample Committee Job Description

• RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
• For the Recovery, Inc. resource development is a
  complex combination of
• Contract Revenue--Programs, projects facilities
  funded by government grants
• Fees for Service--Direct and third party payments
• Philanthropic Support.
• The great majority of RI's funding is received
  through government funding, and the Board
  policies and efforts in these areas will largely
  be determined by the broad program and mission
  recommendations of the Program Committee and the
  Board as a whole.
• Therefore the mandate of this Committee is the
  generation of philanthropic support. While
  "fundraising" is the responsibility of all Board
  members, this Committee serves as the core unit
  of the Board for the guidance and implementation
  of fundraising activities. Specifically the
  Committee will
• Recommend to the Board the Annual Plan for
  current fund raising and for developing future
  funding streams
• Identify potential donors/sources (foundation/
  corporate individual), and provide access as
  appropriate.
• Realistically assess staff, Board and--if
  available--volunteer resources and recommend to
  the Board and staff the distribution of effort
  devoted to various development activities, e.g.,
  the Gala and/or other special events, proposals,
  outreach to alumni, planned giving.
• Be available to the staff as "ambassadors" for
  fundraising visits.
• Non-Board members can be particularly helpful on
  the Gala--or other special event subcommittees.

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Sample Committee Job Description
BOARD DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE Mandate To provide
for the continuing vitality of governance of RI
through the development and effective use of
board resources. The introduction of board
members should be structured to provide both
continuity and a flow of new leadership, with
terms of service and a rotation policy on a
staggered basis. Specific committee
responsibilities ? Development of annual board
recruitment priorities. ? Identification and
recruitment of new board members. ? New board
member orientation. ? Motivation and evaluation
of all board members. ? Leadership development,
including nomination of officers. Composition ? Th
e officers, and three additional board members
chosen because of their understanding of both
RI needs and sources of potential
board candidates.
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John Brothers

• John Brothers is a recognized leader in
  nonprofit and human/social service management
  with over 20 years of experience (10 as an
  executive) in the public service arena. John is
  currently the Principal of Cuidiu Consulting, a
  nonprofit and government consulting group working
  with federal, state and local government and
  local, state and national nonprofit
  organizations. John is also a Senior Fellow at
  the Support Center for Nonprofit Management,
  specializing in executive leadership.  John is
  also a professor in Nonprofit Management at NYU's
  Wagner School for Public Service. He is a former
  adjunct professor at George Mason University in
  Nonprofit Finance and Fund Development, and a
  former fellow with the Children's Defense Fund
  and the Higher Education Consortium for Urban
  Affairs. John has a MPA in nonprofit and public
  management from NYU and a MBA in public policy
  from American Public University.
•  
• Johns full bio is at www.cuidiuconsulting.com/jo
  hn_brothers.asp

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Cuidiu Consulting

• Cuidiu (pronounced QuiDoo) is an Irish word
  meaning caring support.  Cuidiu Consultings
  mission is to promote and uplift efforts that
  provide caring support in our communities.  
• Cuidui Consulting is unique because it can
  provide both the technical expertise of a
  specialist and the broad knowledge of a
  generalist to support a range of functions to
  assist your organization.  Cuidiu Consulting is
  able to give a highly focused, in-depth expertise
  and provide a big-picture view of how change can
  affect different parts of your organization.
• Cuidiu Consulting has worked with a diverse pool
  of communities and efforts from all around the
  United States.  From rural communities with one
  stop-light to the city that never sleeps and
  communities in between, Cuidiu Consulting is
  comfortable in any geographical environment.  
• In addition, Cuidiu Consulting has provided
  services to a wide variety of organizations,
  including non-profit start-ups with one volunteer
  staff member to large government and non-profit
  agencies with multi-million dollar budgets and
  thousands of staff. 

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David M. LaGreca
David LaGreca Transitional Executive Director
Mr. LaGreca has recently been appointed VCG's
Transitional Executive Director. Prior to this
position Mr. LaGreca founded The LaGreca Company.
He has extensive experience in working with
corporate and nonprofit executives in areas as
diverse as performance coaching, to refining and
redefining business operations. Over the past 4
years, he has served three of his clients as
Interim Executive Director. He recently completed
a 30M merger of two social service agencies in
Manhattan and on the dissolution of a long
established workforce program. In 2006 he
completed a business plan to create a young adult
workforce development intermediary focused on the
challenge of out of school, out of work young
adults. Since then, he served first as Interim
Administrative Director and now as Board Chair of
the organization, JOBSFIRSTNYC. Prior to
establishing The LaGreca Company (TLC) in 1999,
David spent eight years as a consultant at the
Volunteer Consulting Group (VCG). A graduate of
the Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven, Belgium,
a former priest, Mr. LaGreca received his MBA in
Management Marketing from the Columbia
University School of Business. Before joining VCG
in 1991, Mr. LaGreca was the Administrator for
the Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan
Kettering Cancer Center, managing a department
with a budget of over 27M and a staff of 130
employees. He also taught at Boston and
Providence Colleges, wrote a newspaper column in
Rhode Island and spent over fifteen years working
with community-based health care organizations
caring for terminal patients. He currently serves
as the Board Chair of JOBSFIRSTNYC and on the
Board of Governance Matters and the Advisory
Board for the MBA-Nonprofit Connection. Mr.
LaGreca served on the Boards of Hospice Care of
Rhode Island and McAuley House (Providence, RI).
He served as Chair of the board of Body Positive
of New York-a position he held for five years. A
native of Rhode Island, Mr. LaGreca has lived,
worked and studied in Belgium, England, Germany,
Italy, Jamaica, Massachusetts and Tanzania. Mr.
LaGreca contributed a chapter on chairing a board
to SECRETS OF SUCCESSFUL BOARDS The Best from
the Non-Profit Pros (compiled and edited by Carol
Weisman, 1998), a chapter on fundraising in the
corporate community in SECRETS OF SUCCESSFUL FUND
RAISING, and a chapter on implementation issues
surrounding strategic planning in a new book,
SECRETS OF SUCCESSFUL RETREATS.
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VCG
The Volunteer Consulting Group (VCG)
(www.vcg.org), founded in 1969, is a nonprofit
organization that works regionally and nationally
to strengthen the governing and management
capability of nonprofit boards of directors.
Fundamental to VCGs mission is bringing
outstanding leadership into service as board
members of health, human service, educational,
cultural, advocacy and community development
organizations. Regionally, VCG provides (1)
High Touch Board Recruitment Assisting boards
in defining their board recruitment objectives
and then conducting a targeted search for
business, professional and community leaders with
the desired expertise, diversity of perspective
and resources (2) boardnetUSA Coaching
Assisting non-profits on how to most effectively
use boardnetUSA.org for their recruitment
efforts (3) Board Consulting Strategic
guidance on board policies/procedures/structure
that enable board members to fulfill their
responsibilities and provide effective oversight
(4) Informational Seminars To help nonprofit
leadership understand the important elements of
effective governance and their responsibilities
to funders and the public and (5) Board
Placement Working with corporations to build
awareness of the need and opportunity for their
executives to serve as trustees and to find
appropriate boards where their experience will be
beneficial.   Nationally, VCG is the creator and
sponsor of www.boardnetUSA.org, a dynamic web
resource that enables potential board membersand
nonprofit boards needing leadershipto find each
other across boundaries of age, ethnicity,
geography and skill. Portal partners include a
broad range of businesses, minority associations,
national nonprofits and communities. VCG is
funded through contributions and grants from over
40 foundations and corporations (including
American Express, Cisco, Citigroup, Clark,
Fidelity, GE and Verizon Foundations, JP Morgan
Chase, Pfizer and the Charles Stewart Mott
Foundation). Services are made available to
nonprofit organizations on an abilityto-pay
basis.