Talk: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.

I know our purview is titled Board Office Responsibilities, but it might be valuable to see if others would agree that we should enlarge the scope to include the other Directors of the Board as some of the issues may be because not enough responsibility is being shared?

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 better by people doing just that to any of my contributions!!!

Feb. 9, 2015

In speaking to some members of the Board I think it may be recognized that the Board work and especially the officers responsibilities might make this Board one of the hardest working boards, or for some... said in another way, "one of the hardest boards I've ever been on!"

It may therefor be that few people want to join the Board, not because they don't have interest, but are concerned that they just don't have enough band width for all the work. I think the work we do in defining the roles for the officers and hopefully other Board members will go a long way in helping out creating new interest and vitality for the Board and its visibility among members.

April 13 2015

In again looking over the strategic plans for 2010-2015 it is an incredibly ambitious document. Although items are checked off from the plan, it is not at all clear how well they were achieved. It would be important for me if I was a Board Member to see how well that tactic was achieved as some of them might be really just a percentage completed. A spread sheet to follow all these activities and when and who achieved them and how much was completed would be valuable and if it met the larger goal. In looking at this list, I would think it would take quite the talented Project Manager to keep these all moving forward. It would be great to share what tools have been used or are being used to track these efforts. This will act as your score board for the effectiveness of your Staff, Leadership and Board's efforts.

I also believe it is essential for the Board to meet monthly, with clear assignments handed out with due dates attached. The committee meetings should be reported to the Board in advance so as to not take up time other than questions about the reports. I believe the lack of meeting time makes for Board agendas that are too large and overwhelming. Need to break complexity into smaller bites to digest.

Do Board minutes and committee minutes get published online for members? This might be a way that both members are better informed and that the work of the Board and Committee's is developed more completely.

As much as I'd like to make suggestions for spreading the responsibilities of the Various Committee Chairs, I feel I am too far removed from the activities to make the divided roles. It would be valuable for those close to the efforts to at least put up a trial balloon so that we could begin to comment on these........