Board Tips
Time to Think Planning
When it looks like spring will never come, it's good for the soul, and good for your board, to do some dreaming and planning for the future. Nobody ever washes a rental car. If you want the board to really support the organization's long-range plan, they have to own it. That means the full board must be involved with development of the plan.
There are so many benefits to taking your board to a planning retreat:
Focus on the plan will elevate board meetings to a much higher level.
The board will learn much more about the organization through planning.
Board members will get to know each other better and build the team. Don't forget to include a dinner and socializing time during the retreat.
Our consultants facilitate dozens of planning retreats every year. Call us--800-735-9471--and we'll tell you exactly how we can lead your team to develop a great long-range plan
Technology for Better Board Meetings
A Colorado executive says she uses her laptop and an LCD projector at every board meeting to project the agenda, financial reports and other statistical reports onto a screen at the end of the board table. She says getting everyone to look at the screen allows her to direct attention to specific areas of the reports rather than having board members paging through written documents, trying to find what she's talking about.
She also utilizes an internet hookup in the boardroom to access the organization's web site where reference materials, such as board policies, minutes of previous meetings, and the current budget are stored on restricted access pages.develop their skills
Who Says You Have to Have an Annual Meeting?
So many boards and executives are still struggling to put together an interesting and informative annual meeting, then begging people to attend. The only way they can justify such a waste of time is that they've always had an annual meeting and assumed they had to continue it. Maybe not.
If your annual meeting works, keep it. Then let me know what you do to make it work and I'll pass the information on to others. But if your annual meeting can only be described as a monumental waste of time, check your bylaws to see if it is required. If not, dump it. If it's required, get the bylaws changed.
An Arizona executive says his board decided to skip the annual meeting and saved big dollars. Any membership balloting is now done by mail, and an annual report is distributed to all members as well as posted on the web site.
A Michigan board member says his board dropped the traditional annual meeting and now invites anyone interested to their regular March board meeting. Refreshments are served, and a part of the board meeting is devoted to a review of activities and progress of the previous year. A summary of that meeting is posted on the web site.