Stress respective roles from the beginning—with board candidates

• Date: 01 May 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/ban.30687
• Published date: 01 May 2018

May 2018 • Volume 34, Number 9 5

DOI 10.1002/ban© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

Invest the necessary time

in new board member orientation

CEO Ann Graff (Sedalia, Missouri) works

with multiple boards and uses these strategies

when she orients new board members to the

organization:

1. Invest your time. “I have a notebook I re-

view with new board members when they come

on board,” said Graff. “We spend about two

hours together.”

2. Review the basics of board service.

This includes a tour of the main office and a

review of what makes a good board member,

Graff said. “We discuss expectations such

as meeting attendance, the agenda and the

board’s set-up, how meetings work and our

mission, vision and values, strategic plans,

board policies, bylaws and program descrip-

tions,” she said.

3. Discuss financial commitment. Graff

also discusses the expectation that all board

members be a donor to the organization, she

said.

4. Show new trustees the metrics used

by the organization. This includes quality

indicators, accreditation results and a financial

summary dashboard with key indicators that

illustrate how the organization is performing,

Graff said.

5. Share contact information. “I give new

board members my phone numbers and an

invitation to call me if they need anything,”

Graff said.

6. Introduce a board contact. It’s natural

for new members to have questions about board

service. “I make sure they are hooked up with

someone they can call if they have questions,”

Graff said, adding that finance is the topic that

receives the most questions from new members.

7. Explain the role. “I stress that the only

employee the board has is me,” Graff said.

She also emphasizes the board is a policy

board that doesn’t get involved in day-to-day

operations.

“I’m fortunate that this is the established

norm on the board,” Graff said. “The culture

here is that the board is not involved in the

weeds unless I ask for their assistance on an

issue. My boards were established as policy and

oversight boards, not to run programs. Most

board members understand that is why they

have me.”

Graff’s orientation process works well. “We

have a board self-evaluation once a year, and I

don’t receive any negative feedback about new

board member orientation,” she said. ■

Stress respective roles from the

beginning—with board candidates

Executive Director Susan Hanson (Dela-

ware, Ohio) stresses her role versus the

board’s role in the orientation of new mem-

bers. In fact, she said she emphasizes respec-

tive roles in an email and chart (see Page 8

for the chart) that is sent to prospective board

members. Here’s more:

“When we initially seek to recruit someone to

the board, we send an email to reinforce the role

difference,” Hanson said. Otherwise, role rein-

forcement is done on an ongoing basis in the

course of the board’s work, she said.

“For example, I notify the board if there is a

personnel concern that could have potential risk

or for liability—but I make it clear that this is

the reason I am making them aware,” Hanson

said. “I don’t open the door for feedback on how

it’s being handled.”

In addition, board meetings always focus

on the big picture, Hanson said. “I have been

lucky that I have not run into issues with board

member micromanagement—and over the past

20 years, the few times I have, those folks didn’t

last on the board,” she said. ■