Your organization’s board manual
is the basis of the board members’
relationship with the organization.
BoardSource outlines on its Web
site what a good manual’s table of
contents should contain. But what
is key, according to Dolan, is the
ambiguity of the job is minimized.
and governance best practices. The symposium provides board
members the opportunity to hear from nationally recognized
experts about not only their day-to-day responsibilities, but more
importantly, how to plan for the future of their organization.
A Strong Foundation — Structure and
Processes
Your organization’s board manual is the basis of the board members’ relationship with the organization. BoardSource outlines
on its Web site what a good manual’s table of contents should
contain. But what is key, according to Dolan, is the ambiguity
of the job is minimized.
There are two Association Forum Professional Practice Statements on which I based my conversations with Dolan and Fortman.
Both can be located at
www.associationforum.org and are:
• Facilitation of Effective Board Decision Making
• Association Strategic Governance.
Dolan and I specifically talked about strategic governance.
He achieves this at ACHE by encouraging board ownership of
the organizational strategic plan. The board helps set annual
corporate objectives and reviews quarterly progress reports. It is
invested in the plan and in the organization achieving the goals
and objectives of the plan.
In addition, ACHE uses the database model for effective decision making. For all major decisions, an issue paper is created.
Lots of data is shared with the board, including background on
the issue, alternatives and advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes a staff recommendation is included, but sometimes it is purposefully excluded. The goal here is a board decision, not board
adoption of a decision already made by staff. This type of decision-making drives board members’ investment in their leadership role.
