Tips From The Trenches

• Date: 01 September 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/ban.30529
• Published date: 01 September 2017

September 2017 • Volume 34, Number 1 7

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

Tips From The Trenches

Difcult issue damaging board

morale? Try this

When you and your board face a contentious is-

sue, remind yourself to slow down.

Do this by having one-on-one conversations

with each board member where you stress to ev-

eryone the need to be forward-thinking and calm

in their deliberations.

Then, at your next board meeting, stress the

same message. And set some ground rules on

behavior standards (no side conversations, no

interruptions). ■

Obtain more insight

during budgeting process

Your customers, staff and board members

should all have input into the budget process.

Many times, determining where to make cuts

and where to find new revenue is easier when all

stakeholders have a voice.

So when it is time to draft the budget, make

time to hear these voices and gather their input. ■

Increase your organization’s inuence

Andrea Kihlstedt, writing on nonprofitpro.

com, shares this idea for extending your orga-

nization’s reach using board members: a board

leadership forum.

Improve meeting agenda with these

easy strategies

Try one of these ideas if board meeting atten-

dance is flagging.

1. Always use a consent agenda. Include

meeting minutes from the finance, governance,

fund development and executive committees, along

with your CEO’s report.

2. Add a 10-minute staff presentation. This

should always be about a program, with time built

in for board Q&A.

3. Introduce a long-term issue to the agen-

da. Your succession, for instance, would be a

good topic. ■

Use ‘carrot’ or ‘stick’ to improve

meeting attendance?

In Terrie Temkin’s April 2017 On Nonprofits

newsletter, she offers these suggestions for con-

veying that a mandatory board meeting means

“must attend.”

• “Determine those situations where you would

like all your board directors to be in attendance,

and incorporate them in your written list of ex-

pectations.”

Share your attendance expectations regularly:

when a prospect is asked to join, when an indi-

vidual says “yes” and during orientation, Temkin

advises.

• “Publish the dates of all the meetings and

events, including the retreat, a year in advance.

Hold those dates as sacred, barring an act of God

or war. It allows people to plan. It also removes

the excuse that something else was already on

the calendar.”

• “Make it clear that not only are there few

excuses for missing, there are consequences for

doing so. Of course, this means having the guts to

follow through on the consequences!”

• “Base your annual board evaluation on a

point system. Assign high point values to atten-

dance at key meetings and events, including your

retreat. Missing such an activity in this situation

becomes potentially costly. (Here again is where

those consequences come in.)”

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

jaOMSt. ■

In this type of meeting, you invite important

people to give brief talks to your board.

“At every board meeting, schedule 15 minutes

for a guest speaker,” Kihlstedt writes. “You can

begin or end each board meeting with a short

program.”

Who do you invite? Someone important in your

community. Here are some ideas from Kihlstedt:

• The board chair of a local hospital.

• A foundation director.

• A local developer.

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

n78h27. ■