My Reading Notes from The Little Book of Boards
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Introduction
1. For an enterprise organization, the quality of the board will only partly affect the health of the overall nonprofit. Would a board making consistently bad and irresponsible decisions affect the organization’s viability? Yes, of course. Would a merely mildly ineffective board damage the overall health? Probably not noticeably. There’s too much inertia and institutional knowledge to counteract a board’s minor neglect.
2. Board members at small nonprofits are often highly engaged in the work of the organization, often by necessity. They may even be essential to its work and continued operation, making up the core of a group of volunteers and doing the actual work of the nonprofit.
3. As a working definition, a small nonprofit has a budget of less than $1 to $1.5 million and fewer than 15 people on staff. A very small nonprofit has a budget of less than $250,000 and one or two staff members.
How to be a Board Member (Part 1)
Chapter 1: What does a Board Do?
1. Ensure the nonprofit is following its mission.
2. Set policy. Policies create a framework for how to operate a board.
- Setting policy is an important function of a board, so long as it doesn’t try to use policy to overly prescribe the actions of the executive director.
3. Ensure the financial health of the nonprofit.
- A board has a responsibility to keep an eye on the finances. So it’s important to establish what you plan to do every year with the budget.
- One specific means of financial oversight: an audit.
4. Every board, no matter the size, has these three responsibilities: mission, policy, and financial oversight/ budget.
5. For fundraising, individual board members should give a gift that is “significant” to them. Whatever that may be.
6. Strategic planning and visioning. While the budget is set for next year, the board must also look further ahead. 5, 10, even 20 years away. Strategic planning is an extension of a board’s three main responsibilities: mission, policy, and financial oversight.
- Despite the importance of strategic planning, it’s something that most boards fail to do.
- The process of strategic planning often lies on the relationship between the board and an executive director.
Chapter 2: Your First Job — Attending Meetings
1. When advocating for an idea or stance, one way that will help you present your ideas more clearly is starting them with the phrase “I feel” or “In my opinion.” Using this construction, you are more likely to be clear about your idea and you are less likely to target someone else personally.
- Also think “What do they see that I don’t?”
2. After each board meeting, solicit anonymous feedback about how the meeting went. 3–4 question survey max.
- Overall, how was the board meeting?
- Did the board spend its time during the meeting on its principal duties?
- Did the board listen to all voices who wanted to speak?
- Do you have additional comments about how the board is doing or how the meeting went?
3. All board members should serve on a committee that has enough work that they need a regular meeting time.
Chapter 3: Beyond Meetings
1. I will communicate the organization’s work and values to the community, and represent the organization when requested.
2. I will make my best effort to attend special events.
3. I will give a financial contribution to the Annual Fund, making the organization a priority in my philanthropy.
4. I will actively participate in one or more fundraising activities.
5. I will act in the best interests of the organization and excuse myself from discussions and votes where I have a conflict of interest.
6. I will stay informed about what’s going on in the organization. I will ask questions and request information. I will participate in and take responsibility for making decisions on issues, policies, and other board matters.
7. I will work in good faith with staff and other board members as partners toward achievement of our goals.
8. I will regularly review the financial position of the nonprofit and remain engaged when it is time to annually adopt a budget.
9. If I don’t fulfill these commitments to the organization, I will expect the board president or president-elect to call me and discuss my responsibilities with me.
Chapter 4: Improving your Board
1. After attending your first (or first few) board meetings, you will need to decide whether you want to stand up and make a suggestion or just roll with it. It’s encouraged to make your voice heard.
2. Join (or make) the board’s governance committee. It will tackle governance issues such as reviewing bylaws, recommending changes to the board, and updating the committee structure.
3. As a new board member, suggest one fix. Examples: Are your board meetings too long? Does your board spend too much time on one topic? Does your board have constant conflicts? Does your board not have strong relationships? Does your board have a bully?
4. If you really want to change a board’s culture, it’s important to step up and take a leadership role.
Chapter 5: Being on the Board when there is No Executive Director
1. Separate board meetings from working meetings and alternate between them.
2. Consider appointing a volunteer executive director for the short-term.
3. Or consider raising money to hire your first executive director.
How to be a Board Leader (Part 2)
Chapter 6: How to be an Officer of the Board
1. President-elect/ vice-president: this role should be a place for likely future presidents to get their feet wet.
2. Past president: Learn what it means to let go.
3. Treasurer: 1) Understand the monthly finances of the nonprofit and know what drives revenue and expenses. 2) Accurately convey the finance information to the rest of the board in reports. Additionally:
- Lead finance meetings
- Work with the executive director
- Research unusual financial questions
- Sound the alarm: The treasurer is likely the first board member who will see if something is truly wrong with the finances.
4. How to be Secretary: Take minutes, know the bylaws, and confirm and maintain the legal status of the board.
- Challenge for men: Next time there is an open secretary position on the board, volunteer to fill it. There are too few men in secretary roles.
5. How to be a Committee Chair:
- Work with the committee members to set regular cadence meetings.
- Work with the executive director to get information needed from for the committee’s work.
- Write and distribute the agenda for committee’s meetings. Then, lead those meetings.
- Represent the committee at the full board meeting.
Chapter 7: How to be Board President
1. Why be president?
- You can influence the path of the board/ nonprofit.
- Personal fulfillment, recognition, and career-building.
2. What are the common duties of a board president?
- Public speaking.
- Preparing the board meeting agenda.
- Leading the board meetings and keep board meetings on track.
- Listening to your board members.
3. Some thoughts on dealing with board members. Listening to board members can be a delicate balance, so it’s recommended to take calls and coffee meetings with your fellow board members, but make sure it’s on your terms. It’s up to you to protect your own time and keep your focus on the entire board.
4. Dealing with board members who are trying to monopolize your time is hard. The easiest way to handle them is to divert them back into the board and committee structure.
5. This models an important behavior to your whole board: Important topics should not be discussed in the shadows. Specifically:
- The board president does not answer to the beck and call of an individual board member, especially if individuals frequently ask for too much of your time.
- Refer board members who ask for too much of your time back into the committee and board structure to get them off your plate.
- When in doubt, get things out into the open quickly and moderate a discussion.
6. A couple tips to help you get through a “corrective conversation”:
- Praise in public and criticize in private (unless something immediately crossed the line).
- Emails are almost always misinterpreted. Phone or in-person is best.
- Remember that the other board members and staff are counting on you.
- After the discussion, remind the board member how glad you are to have them on the board.
7. How not to become Essential:
- A nonprofit won’t last long without passionate people who are willing to pitch in when needed.
- If you feel overwhelmed, email some of your key board members and ask them to manage a task.
8. Using the soft power of board leadership:
- Instead of looking at achieving your goal as one big Herculean effort, a successful board president will probably find that their legacy is in several thousand fingerprints that, combined, nudged the nonprofit forward.
- Getting the culture and policies you leave behind correctly will have a bigger impact on the direction of the nonprofit than almost anything else you do.
Chapter 8: A Leadership Position for Dennis
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Chapter 9: Conclusion
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Appendices (Part 3)
Chapter 10: Robert’s Rules of Order
1. First published in 1876, Robert’s Rules of Order is the standard basis for running meetings.
2. At its most basic, it prevents meetings of groups of people (unions, political parties, clubs, associations, etc.) from descending into chaos. It also provides a structural way to give a dissident a path to make their case or, at least, go on record as being against a particular measure.
Chapter 11: How to Update your Bylaws
1. Look for easy edits first like housekeeping style changes or revising the list of standing committees.
2. Determine an ideal board size, establish terms, and consider term limits. Term limits help prevent an individual board member from acquiring too much power and helps prevent board members getting burnt out.
Chapter 12: Creating an Effective Committee Structure
1. Committees should be where the real work of the board is done and board meetings is the place where that work is adopted as policy.
2. Essential standing committees:
- Finance committee: The treasurer sits on the finance committee along with a group of people who conduct a “deep dive” into the finances of the organization.
- Governance committee: The first task is to review the bylaws on an annual basis and make recommendations for change. The other responsibilities might include improving board meetings, planning a board retreat, and identifying skill gaps on the board.
- Executive committee: This committee is composed of the key officers, and is used to catch board issues early and set meeting agendas.
3. Other potential standing committees:
- Fundraising committee: The role of the fundraising committee is to coordinate the fundraising work of the full board. The committee members are NOT the primary fundraisers. Instead, this committee might make connections with donors or foundations.
- Marketing committee: Should focus on the broad marketing questions. “Who is the target market?” “What demographic information do we know?” “What is our marketing plan?”
- Program committee: Generally, a program committee will look at its core function of the organization. At its best, a program committee could review data on participation rates, service effectiveness, survey results, reports to granting organizations, and other high-level reviews.
- Ad-hoc committees: Are called for a particular task and disband when that task is complete.
- Audit committee: An audit committee adds an extra layer of security, because it might help uncover financial situations.
- Nominations committee: Can handle the coordination of reviewing candidates for the board.
- Search committee
- Technology committee: To evaluate a technology purchase or ensure computers are running the most updated software or team members know how to download and use the most updated tools.
Chapter 13: Board Recruiting
1. First, evaluate your board’s skills. A board should be more like a chess set than a checkers set. Each member should have a different function.
2. Next, evaluate your board’s diversity because the diversity of experience makes a board smarter. Non-diverse boards might find themselves in a catch-22. They want to be more diverse but they don’t know where to start.
3. Just know that if you are truly committed to diversity on your board at all levels, you will need to demonstrate that in your actions. A person of color or a woman will easily be able to see that they are being recruited to be a “token” representative on the board.
