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Actual for You - Board Committees-Is Your New Small Organization Ready For The Next Step?
Phrases like “walk the talk” and “lead by example” are commonplace management and leadership language. These phrases provide frameworks for discussion on effective leadership. I’ve even used them in past articles. That said, I want to make the case today that it is not enough in today’s marketplace to simply “walk the talk” or “lead by example”. Both of these phrases lack the intent to change and improve. Change is always happening and continuous improvement is vital to our businesses today. Consider this alternative phrase instead: “Improve to Lead.”When have you ever heard the phrase, “improve to lead”? I can’t imagine you, or too many others, are nodding your heads right now and thinking, “sure, I hear it all the time.” A short analysis of the business books lining the shelves of the national bookstores and the public l
For very small organizations, committees may take the place of staff efforts - either until a staff person is hired or for the long-term if the organization expects to remain small. In this case, committee responsibility descriptions may look very similar to staff job descriptions.
But in most organizations, the Board committees play a role in helping the board, staff, and organization become more effective – not to do the work. Board members can help provide objectivity in the evaluation of service delivery or the development of external communications. They can also help connect the organization to people, companies, and resources that might not be accessible to staff members directly.
I used the word develop, not write on purpose in the title of this article. While your Operations Manual, Ops Manual, is a crucial tool in your Internal Management tool kit, you don't really write it.Instead you collect it. You gather in one place lots of the bits of information your business depends on to run smoothly, face crises calmly, and allow you to back fill in a hurry. With a complete Ops Manual in place, you, or someone you designate, can act quickly to serve a client, get you out of a stuck spot, carry on when you're unavailable. You get the idea. Major Beer Truck insurance.With a good Ops Manual, you'll never again search for the product code or password for your software, miss a deadline for domain registrations, lose the number of the ink for your letterhead, or the contact number for crucial vendors and suppl
As the organization begins to grow up, the lines become clearer between serving on the Board and volunteering in the program or office, though people will often continue to serve in multiple roles.
Up to this point the Board typically has 4-8, maybe 10, members and most discussions and decisions are made by the group as a whole or default to whomever is closest to the daily operations. Eventually, the Board realizes that in order to increase the impact of the organization, it needs to extend its efforts beyond its initial program efforts. That generally means more emphasis on fund raising, finances, marketing, and evaluation (proving that the organization is good at what it does).
For many organizations, this is when the discussion turns to recruiting board members with skills that complement the founding group and exploring an effective committee structure. For a small organization, Board committees can support the staff in key roles or actually do the work until funds are available for a staff person.
Committees are great when they work and a terrible burden and experience when they don't. My philosophy on committees has evolved over time – I offer four key insights:
1) Committees should be formed around the current needs of the organization, not out of a Board book that says "every board should have X, Y, and Z committees."
It is too common for a well-meaning board member to use a board book or their experience with another organization to create a board structure for your organization. While there are many committees that most organizations have in common, your first venture into committee work can be overwhelming if you try to catch up with a mature organization too quickly.
I suggest an organization look first to their mission and strategic plan. What needs to be accomplished? Where are you focusing most of your efforts over the next one to two years? Where can the board's work best benefit the organization? Common initial committees might be one that is externally focused - perhaps Marketing, PR, Fund Raising and one that is more internally focused, perhaps finance and developing board policies. This assumes that the Board officers are already acting as, at least, an informal Executive Committee handling Exec Dir evaluation and review and orientation of new board members. Using this approach, each committee can identify what it needs in new members and skills and work with the other board members to find and recruit those people.
The next committee is typically charged with program evaluation or planning and evaluation. This group helps define what "Success" is for the organization and how well you are doing.
2) With the exception of an all-volunteer organization, committees should exist to complement staff roles and responsibilities, not duplicate or mirror them.
For very small organizations, committees may take the place of staff efforts - either until a staff person is hired or for the long-term if the organization expects to remain small. In this case, committee responsibility descriptions may look very similar to staff job descriptions.
But in most organizations, the Board committees play a role in helping the board, staff, and organization become more effective – not to do the work. Board members can help provide objectivity in the evaluation of service delivery or the development of external communications. They can also help connect the organization to people, companies, and resources that might not be accessible to staff members directly.
Does it sometimes take way longer than you expect to get fundamental ideas across to your audience?When you're promoting new products, processes, services, or best practices, does it take forever to "turn everyone around"? Do customers have trouble getting the most out of your products and services? Do employees have trouble helping your prospects and customers reap the benefits of what you offer?Maybe you -- or the experts who are helping you, whether internal or external -- are too smart!Sometimes we know too much about what we want to say to remember what questions we had when the subject was new.A fluent speaker of another language may be a poor teacher, because s/he can't understand why beginners don't "get" a language that seems so simple and natural. <
For many organizations, this is when the discussion turns to recruiting board members with skills that complement the founding group and exploring an effective committee structure. For a small organization, Board committees can support the staff in key roles or actually do the work until funds are available for a staff person.
Committees are great when they work and a terrible burden and experience when they don't. My philosophy on committees has evolved over time – I offer four key insights:
1) Committees should be formed around the current needs of the organization, not out of a Board book that says "every board should have X, Y, and Z committees."
It is too common for a well-meaning board member to use a board book or their experience with another organization to create a board structure for your organization. While there are many committees that most organizations have in common, your first venture into committee work can be overwhelming if you try to catch up with a mature organization too quickly.
I suggest an organization look first to their mission and strategic plan. What needs to be accomplished? Where are you focusing most of your efforts over the next one to two years? Where can the board's work best benefit the organization? Common initial committees might be one that is externally focused - perhaps Marketing, PR, Fund Raising and one that is more internally focused, perhaps finance and developing board policies. This assumes that the Board officers are already acting as, at least, an informal Executive Committee handling Exec Dir evaluation and review and orientation of new board members. Using this approach, each committee can identify what it needs in new members and skills and work with the other board members to find and recruit those people.
The next committee is typically charged with program evaluation or planning and evaluation. This group helps define what "Success" is for the organization and how well you are doing.
2) With the exception of an all-volunteer organization, committees should exist to complement staff roles and responsibilities, not duplicate or mirror them.
For very small organizations, committees may take the place of staff efforts - either until a staff person is hired or for the long-term if the organization expects to remain small. In this case, committee responsibility descriptions may look very similar to staff job descriptions.
But in most organizations, the Board committees play a role in helping the board, staff, and organization become more effective – not to do the work. Board members can help provide objectivity in the evaluation of service delivery or the development of external communications. They can also help connect the organization to people, companies, and resources that might not be accessible to staff members directly.
The agenda is the key to a successful meeting – it is the roadmap, the guide, the plan. Studies have shown that up to 70% of meetings either have no agenda or have a poor agenda which is not helpful. In this article, you will see that there are some steps which you can take to make sure your agenda will contribute to making your meeting more productive. There are also hidden advantages. If the agenda is well constructed, you will also spend less time in the meeting and more time actually doing the things the meeting determines need to be done!1. Remember the key – the more detailed the agenda, the more focussed and generally, the shorter the meeting will be.2. You cannot expect intelligent decisions if people do not have time to think through the issues before the meeting. Therefore, agendas need to be sent out in advance, on, not out of a Board book that says "every board should have X, Y, and Z committees."
It is too common for a well-meaning board member to use a board book or their experience with another organization to create a board structure for your organization. While there are many committees that most organizations have in common, your first venture into committee work can be overwhelming if you try to catch up with a mature organization too quickly.
I suggest an organization look first to their mission and strategic plan. What needs to be accomplished? Where are you focusing most of your efforts over the next one to two years? Where can the board's work best benefit the organization? Common initial committees might be one that is externally focused - perhaps Marketing, PR, Fund Raising and one that is more internally focused, perhaps finance and developing board policies. This assumes that the Board officers are already acting as, at least, an informal Executive Committee handling Exec Dir evaluation and review and orientation of new board members. Using this approach, each committee can identify what it needs in new members and skills and work with the other board members to find and recruit those people.
The next committee is typically charged with program evaluation or planning and evaluation. This group helps define what "Success" is for the organization and how well you are doing.
2) With the exception of an all-volunteer organization, committees should exist to complement staff roles and responsibilities, not duplicate or mirror them.
For very small organizations, committees may take the place of staff efforts - either until a staff person is hired or for the long-term if the organization expects to remain small. In this case, committee responsibility descriptions may look very similar to staff job descriptions.
But in most organizations, the Board committees play a role in helping the board, staff, and organization become more effective – not to do the work. Board members can help provide objectivity in the evaluation of service delivery or the development of external communications. They can also help connect the organization to people, companies, and resources that might not be accessible to staff members directly.
Restaurants that serve just about any type of beverage can usually benefit from beverage costing, but restaurants that serve alcoholic beverages are the best candidates for beverage costing analysis for increased profitability.Beverages are one of the easier ways to maximize profits for your restaurant due to the lower costs and far greater profit margins than with food.How To Calculate Beverage CostsSimilar to calculating food costs, you need to designate a time frame where you will analyze the beverage costs for your restaurant. This can be one week, one month or several months. Typically, the longer time you allow for analysis, the better and more accurate the information you will gain from the report. Usually, non alcoholic beverages like soda, coffee, juice, water etc, are not included in your beverage costing c perhaps Marketing, PR, Fund Raising and one that is more internally focused, perhaps finance and developing board policies. This assumes that the Board officers are already acting as, at least, an informal Executive Committee handling Exec Dir evaluation and review and orientation of new board members. Using this approach, each committee can identify what it needs in new members and skills and work with the other board members to find and recruit those people.
The next committee is typically charged with program evaluation or planning and evaluation. This group helps define what "Success" is for the organization and how well you are doing.
2) With the exception of an all-volunteer organization, committees should exist to complement staff roles and responsibilities, not duplicate or mirror them.
For very small organizations, committees may take the place of staff efforts - either until a staff person is hired or for the long-term if the organization expects to remain small. In this case, committee responsibility descriptions may look very similar to staff job descriptions.
But in most organizations, the Board committees play a role in helping the board, staff, and organization become more effective – not to do the work. Board members can help provide objectivity in the evaluation of service delivery or the development of external communications. They can also help connect the organization to people, companies, and resources that might not be accessible to staff members directly.
Measurement and control equipment comes in many different guises, yet it is collectively an essential component of any tradesman's toolbox. For decades, these objects have featured as both domestic and commercial solutions, in addition to vital players in the trade service industry, considered as assets designed for life. Measurement equipment has always had the traditional characteristics of expense and quality, although with the rise of the Internet comes an increase in availability of this type of equipment, at more affordable and attractive prices. Add to that the tenfold expansion of availability compared with your average hardware retailer, and you're looking at a natural focal point for this type of acquisition.The Internet is a haven for low prices, and is a consumer-dominated marketplace. There is such a wealth of comand responsibilities, not duplicate or mirror them.
For very small organizations, committees may take the place of staff efforts - either until a staff person is hired or for the long-term if the organization expects to remain small. In this case, committee responsibility descriptions may look very similar to staff job descriptions.
But in most organizations, the Board committees play a role in helping the board, staff, and organization become more effective – not to do the work. Board members can help provide objectivity in the evaluation of service delivery or the development of external communications. They can also help connect the organization to people, companies, and resources that might not be accessible to staff members directly.
For example, the Program Committee or Program Evaluation Committee should focus on answering questions like – “What are we trying to accomplish? “and “Are our programs having the impact we want?”. The Finance Committee focuses on ensuring that internal controls are in place to reduce the likelihood of fraud or theft and on identifying the risks to the organization and making sure that appropriate insurance and loss prevention strategies are in place.
Typically, the committee, with a staff member, works to develop a plan and then decide who will turn the plan into action. In an organization with few or no staff, the committee members become the primary implementers. In an organization with staff, the staff often leads the implementation with committee members playing critical roles in reviewing progress, adding specific expertise, and making connections with people, funders, other nonprofits, business, or government that can help the organization reach its goals.
3) Board members aren't truly engaged unless they are responsible for doing something outside the routine Board meetings - so I think almost all boards should have some committees.
An unfortunate truth of board service is that we typically tell prospective board members that we will not expect much of their time and then we are upset if they don't do more than the absolute minimum.
If your board meets quarterly, it can be hard to get board members to think about you more than 6-8 hours a year (when they are sitting in board meetings). If you meet monthly, it can be hard to keep attendance up because so little of consequence happens in the 30 days between each meeting.
If board members can be engaged in a committee that is doing work that they feel is interesting and worthwhile, and that allows them to use their skills in ways they enjoy, you will build bonds between board members, increase buy-in to the organization, and get more accomplished.
4) Task Forces (short-term committees) create energy and work to quick completion of a defined outcome. Standing committees with poorly defined responsibilities frustrate Board members and waste their time attempting to be productive.
I have found one effective way to launch committees is to treat them as short-term task forces with a distinct project to complete. For example, a Marketing/PR committee might start by putting on a new event or getting out a regular newsletter. I have found that efforts like “assembling a 3 year marketing plan” do not create much energy because no one has seen anything actually happen.
After the initial success, the group can more easily define the additional skills and people it needs on the team and who is the natural leader. Some groups might work effectively in a task-to-task basis on an on-going basis. Others, like finance, usually define more of a regular routine to their meetings and schedules.
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