Board Officer Responsibility

Guna, I think this topic raises many of the same issues as I've discussed with DeWitt as to what appears to be an uneven spread of responsibilities among the various officers. I'm struggling a bit to see the division between the two tasks we've been asked to participate on. So instead of figuring this out alone, let me share what I've gleaned from the Governance Handbook as to what seem like some jumping off points.

PG 10: "The Governance Handbook is the primarily the responsibility of the Executive Director." Although this was a tremendous effort by the ED to generate this document, it seems to me that as in it describes the roles and responsibilities of the Board and it's relationship to the staff, that this IS the responsibility of the Board. How it gets it done through the offices of the ED is the Board's directive. I have seen some boards where the ED pretty much runs the show and the the Board is more in name then in function, but it my sense that this is a very responsible board to its duty of care, loyalty and obedience. ....... so it seems to me part of Board Officer Responsibility is to own this document and to be very familiar with its contents, (which I don't doubt the Board is already)

MISSION, VISION, VALUES: It is essential as part of Board Responsibilities that these can be recited by the Board as this should be guiding their efforts. Some times these documents are created and then get shelved as "done the mission, vision, values thing". The best of these become the touch stones for an organization. (You have very very long guides to recite from memory).

PG: 16 - Section 4: Board Attendance: Showing up is 90% of success. Glad you have a policy and it seems that this is valued by the Board and pursued when necessary.

PG: 16 - Section 6: Responsibility for keeping track of conflicts is both the individual Board Members responsibility but typically also the Presidents, if it is felt someone has not exercised their responsibility of loyalty. Don't know if this has ever come up..........

Executive Committee has oversight on performance of Appointed Council and Executive Director. No oversight is mentioned for the Appointed Treasurer. I realize these valuable members have been in place for a long time. When it comes a time when a new person needs to fill this position, is their oversight on this appointed position on the Board?

PG: 22 - Section 3: "...The Executive Committee ... to undertake management of the association other then when the Board is in session". What powers does this give the EC? Does the EC want to manage the association?

PG: 24 - Finance and Budget committee responsible for annual budget and the audit but not for other reports required by the Board or EC. My experience has been that a Board without regular fiduciary oversight can feel less involved especially when unexpected events compromise expected results. I wonder about the level of contact with the entire Board and if that has lead to some members being less active. Are three meetings enough???

THE ORG CHART: It seems that on the face of it the VP of Committees has an enormous level of responsibility with little staff support. As I see on PG 129, this portfolio is enormous!

PG 126: President: To provide day to day guidance to the ED...... Not sure what is meant here

In Summary: Some of the work completed by the Board is beyond the scope of strictly an oversight Board. Some of the positions are very active contributors to the operations of the organization. So you have both responsibilities depending upon the positions on the Board. This can only be remediated by more staff ($$$$) or spreading out the volunteer operations work more evenly among the Board members. This will also require being very upfront about this level of Board Commitment.

I very much appreciate the note that all contributions may be edited, altered or removed. Everything I've ever done has been made by people doing just that to my work!!!