Do No Harm: The Board Member, Personal Expression and Social Media

DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1002/bl.30100
Date01 March 2018
Published date01 March 2018
AuthorJeff Stratton
6 BOARD LEADERSHIP
Do No Harm: The Board
Member, Personal
Expression and Social Media
By Jeff Stratton
In this piece, we cover how to manage board members’ political views and other
personal expression with their duty to their organizations.
If a board member combines her
political views with her service to
the organization on Facebook, Twitter
or any number of online media, your
organization can suffer.
How the board addresses this issue
can be tricky, because although a
board member has every right to her
personal views, if your organization
becomes linked to them it can create a
negative impression.
The board’s leadership should
create awareness among board
members that there can be unintended
consequences to the nonprofit if the
board member is airing strong views
online. The chair can lead in this area,
using the following ideas:
1. Board members who are
active online should make
clear with their posts that
their views don’t represent
the organization’s. Nonprot
consultant Carol Weisman (www.
boardbuilders.com) believes
board members who post
controversially on social media
can be a problem if they post
when they are representing the
nonprot organization. In such
instances, they should be asked
to take offending posts down,
Weisman said.
This is the type of issue where
the board chair should speak
directly to the board member
who is creating a problem for the
organization with controversial
views.
Years back, Weisman worked
with an organization whose
cause was pediatric cancer. One
of the women who served on the
board of the organization started
a very popular blog with helpful
tips for parents of children who
had been stricken with pediatric
cancer. “It was information such
as ‘If they tell you to show up at
7:30 a.m., don’t come until 8:15
a.m. They aren’t ready for you
until then’ and ‘Judy is the best
infusion nurse, the worst is….’”
Parents loved this information,
Weisman said, but the hospital
hated it being made public.
But the hospital was a donor
to the organization and a partner
with it, so the blogger had
to shut down the blog. “She
could do the blog, but not as a
board member, and not while
mentioning her organization,”
Weisman said.
2. Be careful about trying to
limit board members’ personal
social media. In these fraught
and tense times, people are
expressing strong political views,
but also expressing themselves
personally. This includes board
members.
Christina Green, writing on
frankjkenny.com in “Should
Board Members and Staff Have
Personal Lives on Social Media?”
says it gets tricky trying to
enforce what board members
post on social media.
Green suggests thinking
seriously about how much
you want to control a board
member’s personal life. Instead
of prohibiting behavior, “use
helpful language like: ‘Be a
connector for the community,
not a detractor.’ [and] ‘Raise
yourself and others up in all
social media interactions.’”
For more information, go to
frankjkenny.com/should‐board‐
members‐have‐personal‐lives‐on‐
social‐media/.
3. Keep the topic of social
media in front of the board
with training. As part of your
organization’s ongoing board
training and education program,
suggest the board chair lead
the board through a reminder of
thoughtful posting on personal
social media if representing the
organization.
This activity should be
coupled with negative examples
from other organizations where
board members have led the
organization into hot water with
their controversial posts.
“Social Networking and Board
Service
Here are some practical social
media posting guidelines for
board members:
Set up two accounts for each
medium, one for use as a board
member and one for personal
postings.
Avoid social media arguments.
Alert the CEO and board
chair if the trustee notices
misrepresentations about the
nonprofit on social media.
Make it clear that the views you
express as a board member
are yours alone and are not
representative of what the
nonprofit or board thinks or
believes.
Change settings from “public” to
“friends.”
Avoid all direct or indirect
political campaign intervention
(such as supporting or opposing
candidates for public office) in the
name of nonprofit XYZ and when
using XYZ media.
Discuss and set expectations as a
board.
Reprinted with permission from Board &
Administrator. Copyright ©2017 Wiley
Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company.

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