Tips From The Trenches

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/ban.30424
• Date: 01 March 2017
• Published date: 01 March 2017

March 2017 • Volume 33, Number 7 7

DOI 10.1002/ban© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

Tips From The Trenches

Put conict disclosure into place

If your board doesn’t do this already, here is an

excellent reason for them to ask their colleagues to

sign a conflict-of-interest disclosure each year: the

bottom line.

A Missouri administrator said one of the or-

ganization’s funders asks that board members

sign a conflict-of-interest disclosure statement

annually. If the conflict-of-interest disclosure

isn’t signed by each board member, it puts

funding at risk.

The board makes this an annual board activity

where the chair asks all board members to review

the conflict of interest policy and sign the disclo-

sure statement. ■

Self-discipline key to board

that won’t meddle

The best method for preventing micromanage-

ment is board self-discipline: The board must

provide leadership and guidance to other board

members who stray.

The key here for the CEO is building a board

where the majority understands its role is that of

policymaker. If the board majority doesn’t believe

in the separation-of-duties concept and make it

practice, individual board members will always

meddle. ■

Easy checklist to ensure the chair

understands the job

Be sure your next board chair gets off to a

good start in his or her new position. A check-

list from The Board Doctor can be put to good

use in the orientation of a new, inexperienced

board chair.

The checklist covers duties such as working

effectively with the executive director, leading at

meetings and ensuring cohesion on the board.

For the checklist, go to http://goo.gl/LYlusG. ■

Communicate effectively for a better

board relationship

In an article for BoardSource, Hardy Smith said

the CEO cannot afford to blow it when it comes to

trust.

“Causing this type of negative reaction may not

be intentional, but it can have board members

feeling like they’re in a mushroom grow house—

being kept in the dark and covered with manure!”

Smith writes.

“Failing to communicate successfully under-

mines relationships and diminishes credibility,” he

writes. “Is it reasonable to expect board members

to work cooperatively with someone they don’t feel

positive about or whose reliability is questioned?

Mission paramount

in a successful merger

Shirley Sagawa, in the Stanford Social Innova-

tion Review article “Nonprofit Mergers: The Miss-

ing Ingredient,” suggests that making the mission

paramount is the key to a successful merger of

nonprofits.

Here are two of Sagawa’s tips from her merger

experience:

1. Come to the table as equal players. “Our

organizations had wide-ranging budgets, his-

tories, staff sizes and brand equity,” Sagawa

writes. “Despite these differences, we respected

each other’s work and understood the unique

perspective each organization brought to the

conversation.”

2. Share information and make views and

aspirations transparent. “When we started,

we did not know we were on a road to a merger,”

she writes. “In fact, there were often competing

viewpoints about the best path forward. But we

worked to make sure we were all working off the

same knowledge base and knew when one of us

was acting on assumptions that needed to be

discussed.”

For more information, go to http://goo.gl/

1TwEF8. ■

“Make no mistake; these feelings affect trust.

It’s impossible to have a positive relationship with

someone without trust.”

For more information, go to http://goo.gl/

m2Hu1o. ■