CHAPTER ELEVEN.  Board Development: Preparing an Individual Development Plan for a Board Member

This involves a slightly different set of issues than preparing an IDP for a staff person.  Board members are usually recruited because (1) they have some specific skill (lawyer, housing expert, personnel manager) or because (2) they are part of a constituency or (3) can represent a community or (4) they can represent a specific institution.  Sometimes, a person who is committed to your mission or your agency is recruited for the board and THEN they are helped to obtain the knowledge and skills needed to perform a board role.  So you can either recruit a person or “grow” a person to do a specific CAA board function. 

There are dozens of generic workbooks for nonprofit boards that describe board members responsibilities for planning, fundraising and fiscal oversight, accountability to stakeholders, evaluating the executive director, etc.  There are courses at community colleges, management support centers and through associations on “how to be a board treasurer” or “parliamentary procedure.”  These offer an inexpensive way for board members to improve their ability to carry out a specific role or assignment. 

For a description of individual board member roles and what a board member needs to know about a CAA, we commend your attention to the Community Action Partnership Board Manual.  This used to be a stand-alone manual and now has been reduced to a chapter in the CAA Executives Handbook.   This will help you identify the particular area/s or topics on which an individual board member may want to initiate self-improvement.  These board materials help CAA Board members to understand the scope, complexity and developmental history of what a CAA is and does.  Most of this information can be absorbed in one reading or in a one-day workshop that provides an overview of CAAs and their history.  Individuals may choose to help the CAA Board by focusing on one or more of its internal functions.  A few of the key areas listed in the Board Manual are listed here:

        ·   Leadership (officers, committee chairs)
·  Internal structure and operations; e.g., by-laws
·  Nominating, recruiting new members
·   Planning
·   Personnel
·  Finance
·  Public relations, community relations
·   Staff and board development

Board members may want to specialize in one or more of the strategies that CAA’s use to bring about change in the community:

                ·  Community organization and development
        ·  Program coordination
        ·  Program development/implementation/oversight/monitoring
        ·  Advocacy, influence public policy
        ·  Solving specific community problems
        ·  Resource mobilization
        ·  Outreach, information and referral, case management
        ·  Direct social services

All of these are areas where individual performance can be improved through self-study, participating on other boards, classroom training, or mentoring by other board members.  Finding out what the individual wants to do is very important.  As volunteers, if they don't enjoy doing it and don't want to do it, either they won't do it at all or they won't do it for long.

Boards have the ability to work with each other as a group, as a team.  Boards of small CAA’s almost never receive training in “effective teamwork.”  Instead, “the way we do things around here” and other traditional modes of operation are passed on from the old board members to the new members, who are “socialized” into the board's existing approaches.  The new member usually has a difficult time in learning the jargon of the programs.  It takes a year or two for them to learn the vocabulary and acronyms associated with the programs -- during which time they usually slip unconsciously into the existing social structure.  This may or may not be desirable.

Where a board already has a long-term vision, is aggressive and enjoys effective board operations, you want new people to “join the team.”  If the board is stodgy, micro-managing day-to- day operations, or dominated by one or two people then it may be desirable to change the way the board operates.  This can almost never be done simply by sending one or two board members off to a training session.  Large changes have to be done with the entire board in the room.

What can be accomplished by training one or two board members off site is to show them “there is a better way.”  They will then have to convince others that change is needed.  This “vision building” for an individual through their IDP can serve as a catalyst for change, but it is neither the method nor the sum total of change.  Having one or two board members get fired up about the need for change is a necessary condition, but it is not a sufficient condition.  This change has to be carried out with the entire board in the room, going through a developmental process.  The typical reasons why boards get hung up are described in Chapter 7, as are some of the methods that can be used to initiate corrective action.

The “deductive” approach would be to build a list of all possible tasks and capacities for a board then check off which ones that individual will focus on and how you will help them improve.  The “inductive approach” would start with the individual and their interests and list the specifics.  An example of the latter type of a Board Member Individual Development Plan is given here. 

The Board member can take the lead in developing their own plan, or it can be done in conjunction with one or more other board members, and/or the Executive Director.  Similarly, the approvals of the plan will vary depending on its content and cost to the agency.

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Board Member Individual Development Plan (Draft format)

BOARD MEMBER NAME:  F. Smith                             Date: tomorrow, 200x

FOR PERIOD: May 1, 200x to April 30, 200y

_______________________________       ________________________
      Board Member /date                                      Board Chair/date

________________________________
(Optional) Executive Director/date

  A.  Purposes of Board Meetings

    1. To hear about progress in the achievement of the various objectives of the organization.

    2.  To hear reports of Board committees and to make policy decisions, where required, based on committee reports.

    3.  To make policy decisions.

    4.  To inspire Board members toward greater service.

    5. To provide a vehicle for Board members to meet Board members, and for Board members to meet staff.

    6. To maintain control over the organization and to give guidance to committees.

    7. To legitimatize.

    8. To communicate.

    9. To coordinate.

    10. To organize.

    11.  To plan.

    12. To meet legal requirements for Board meetings.

Adapted from Conrad, William R. and William R. Glenn, The Effective Voluntary Board of Directors, Chicago:  Swallow Press.

B.  Developing an Agenda

An agenda is a list of things to be accomplished -- it provides an order of business for the group.  In a way, its like having a map because it shows you where you must begin, what tasks you must complete, and where you will end up.  Meetings that are run without agendas are likely to stray, last forever, or waste a lot of time. 

A typical agenda format follows:

Agenda

Executive Board Meeting

____________________ Agency

__________, 2003

1.                        Call to order and opening ceremonies.

2.                        Roll call.

3.                        Reading of the minutes and their approval.

4.                        Treasurer's report.

5.                        Standing committee reports.

6.                        Ad Hoc committee reports.

7.                        Unfinished business.

8.                        New or postponed business.

9.                        Acknowledgment of visitors for remarks.

10.                    Set date for next meeting and adjournment.

If the group follows this sort of agenda, business may be conducted out of order only when the group votes to suspend the rules.  Four methods of building an agenda follow.

METHOD #1: Leader built

The first method sees the leader (perhaps the chairperson or the chairperson in cooperation with the Executive Director and staff) build the agenda.  The leader identifies what topics will be confronted and assigns these topics to an order or sequence.  The leader also may assign time limits to the topics on the agenda.

METHOD #2: Group Input - Leader built

The second method follows a similar format; however, it is developed somewhat differently.  This process seeks input from some or all board members.  Usually, a deadline is set, and topics must be submitted by that date.

      The leader then creates an actual agenda listing the order of business and all topics to be discussed.  The leader assigns priorities.  And, if it's the group's custom, the leader assigns time limits (limits of debate of discussion) for each topic.  Essentially, the format would be the same as or similar to the format described in Method #1.

METHOD #3: Group built

A third method departs from tradition significantly in that it is totally democratic and totally a product of the total group effort.  In this instance, the leader and group members built an agenda together on the night of and at the beginning of the Board meeting.  Naturally, some tasks (reading of the minutes, for example) are routine so only the main part or “meat” of the agenda is developed.

            In this case, the leader lists all of the topics suggested by anyone in the group on a chalkboard or large piece of news­print.  When everyone is satisfied that all pertinent topics have been identified, the group then ranks the topics in the order of their intended discussion and budgets the amount of time to be spent on each item.

METHOD #4: Public Agencies

CAAs have rules that apply to public bodies in terms of how items get on the agenda, and some items must be considered over two meetings, etc. in California these are spelled out in the Brown Act.

   
C.  Checklist for Leading a Meeting