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Give New Board Members the Training You Wish You'd Had as a Newcomer

Steady opportunities to learn are crucial to the effective governance and successful performance of nonprofits. Board members must attain a level of expertise "sufficient to allow the board to add value to the decision-making process" (John Pound, 1995). Otherwise, board members will rely excessively on staff to develop policies, formulate strategies, and evaluate implications, and they will be unable to independently monitor and interpret results. Yet many board members suggest that the way to become an educated and effective board member is simply by watching how everyone else does it.

This strategy, however, is inefficient and is heavily dependent on each individual's ability to figure out what is most important to know. It does not ensure that the appropriate level of knowledge and skill is ever attained. A better strategy is for the board to set a deliberate program for board education to ensure that all members have the tools they need to properly govern. Here is one way to approach the issue.

• Pose a broad policy question. What information should board members know to be effective and to make sound decisions? Determine what types of knowledge are appropriate for which people, in what form, and how often.
• Start a preliminary list of educational needs by having all seasoned board members respond to the question, "What do you wish you had known when you first became a board member that you were never told but that would have made a difference in your understanding of this board's work?"
• Secure from each committee a list of the types of information one must understand (including knowledge of acronyms and other lingo, background needed to read reports, understanding of context, etc.) to understand that committee's activities.
• Identify program information needs, including soliciting input from staff about important concepts, principles, awareness, and sensitivity.
• Review educational materials and decide which would be appropriate to use for board education.
• Develop a comprehensive board education plan to provide a schedule of information to be given to board members.

By Antoine Moore, board member, Northern California Land Trust. Originally appeared in part in Board Cafe, published by the Support Center for Nonprofit Management. Contact the Support Center at 415-541-9000 or visit www.supportcenter.org/sf.

Reprinted from the June 1999 edition of Board Member, Volume 8, Issue 6. Text may not be reproduced without written permission from BoardSource. For more information, call BoardSource at 202-349-2500 or e-mail permissions@boardsource.org.

Give New Board Members the Training You Wish You'd Had as a Newcomer

 

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