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Governance and Board Affairs
by Ronald B. House, Ph.D The first article in the “For Directors Only” series defined nine important management functions of CIL’s. This article focuses on one of the nine functions, “Governance and Board Affairs,” and suggests tips for recruiting board members. For both new and established CIL’s, the Nominating Committee may be the most important standing committee on the board. Identifying and recruiting good board members is very difficult; you are often looking for a person who has a specific knowledge area (e.g., personnel management), has the time necessary for board activities, and meets I.L. guidelines for representing the community. A long-range approach to identifying potential board members is to establish ad hoc committees that include volunteers from the community. These ad hoc committees address specific tasks before the board, such as establishing personnel policies, reviewing the accounting system, or implementing a strategic planning process. In order to encourage community members to serve as volunteers, the board must establish policies and procedures for ad hoc committees. The policy should require that a short time commitment (e.g., two to three months) be specified for completing a specific task, as people are much more likely to volunteer if they know how much of their time is expected. Volunteers must be excluded from any liability, and must be allowed to meet with the board as nonvoting members. People from the business or public sectors can be recruited as volunteers for an ad hoc committee assignments. Businesses are often interested in having their employees serve in a volunteer capacity, particularly if some recognition accompanies the completed task. You can provide recognition through your own newsletter, a local newspaper, or a ceremony that includes thanks to community volunteers for a job well done! This process of ad hoc committee recruitment has both short-term and long-term advantages to the Center. First, by setting up an ad hoc committee for a specific task, the board can recruit a volunteer who is knowledgeable in a particular subject area. The contributions of such a volunteer will be valuable to the board as it performs its immediate tasks. Second, the executive director and the board members serving on the ad hoc committees will get to know the volunteers and can assess their competence, their ability to work with others, and their commitment to achieving committee objectives. The volunteers, in turn, will learn more about the CIL and its mission. Furthermore, staff members involved with a specific task may be serving as representatives to the committee and will also have the experience of working with the volunteers. You as the director, board members serving on the committees, and CIL staff will all have the opportunity to observe and evaluate their performance. If the volunteers meet your expectations for board members, have the chairman of the Nominating Committee and the board president write them a letter stating your interest in inviting them to be full board members in the future. If you use this process of inviting volunteers to provide advice and consultation by serving as members of ad hoc committees, you will start to build a resource pool of potential board members. This recruitment process takes time, but by planning ahead, working with the community, and identifying upcoming middle managers and professionals, you can have both a short-term and a long-term pay off. The board will have a pool of volunteers to serve as knowledgeable resource persons at the present time. As a result of their experience and commitment as ad hoc committee members, these volunteers are likely to say yes when invited to become full board members in the future. ****************************** Ronald B. House, Ph.D., is a researcher, educator and consultant on
not-for-profit organizations and was on the faculty of |
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