Tips From The Trenches

• Published date: 01 June 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/ban.30092
• Date: 01 June 2015

June 2015 • Volume 31, Number 10 7

DOI 10.1002/ban© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

Tips From The Trenches

Technology rollout made easy

for board members

The Streamlink Software blog post “A Quick

Guide to Improve Board Portal Adoption” offers

this tip: Make the rollout of the new technology

easy on board members.

• Phase in the new technology. Give board

members time to adjust to new procedures. Do

this by providing hard copies in addition to online

les for a period of time after initial rollout.

• Implement the buddy system. Ask board

members to help one another through the train-

ing process.

• Keep the portal top-of-mind. Link to content

on the portal in emails and documents, so board

members are reminded of its functionality.

For more information, go to http://goo.gl/lTOq1c. ■

Who doesn’t go on cultivation visits?

In a question-and-answer post from Gail

Perry, the fundraising consultant answers the

question: “Should the executive director go on

major gift cultivation visits with me [meaning

development staff]?”

“Actually I’d like to see you visit with the do-

nor rst by yourself,” Perry writes. “This helps

you start developing a personal friendship with

him or her.”

After the relationship has been established,

bring in the executive director as a step in the do-

nor cultivation process, Perry said.

Once you have established your own relation-

ship with your prospect, then bring your executive

director in to meet them as a second step in the

prospect’s cultivation.

“You want step-by-step moves with your pros-

pect,” Perry writes. “Introducing her to someone

higher up on the ladder, so to speak, is a time-

honored strategy.”

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

FaHBL9. ■

Make the mission, vision foremost

in your work

In a blog post titled, “7 Questions to Guide Your

Nonprot Strategy,” Social Velocity emphasized the

organization’s mission and vision.

“These two statements are NOT feel-good rally-

ing cries,” the post states. “Rather, they are instru-

mental elements of your future direction.”

The organization’s vision describes how you

want to improve the world, while the mission

should describe the day-to-day work of the non-

prot in achieving the mission, the post said.

“Any good strategic plan takes a hard look at

the two statements and revises them as neces-

sary,” Social Velocity said.

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

u8hX3C. ■

Advice for speaking with nonperforming board members

Jane Garthson, president of the Garthson Leadership

Centre (Toronto, ON, Canada; http://garthsonleadership.ca),

believes that having a difficult conversation with a problematic

board member is the responsibility of the chair and/or the

chair of the governance committee.

“As an executive director, I see my role more as coach-

ing and supporting the chair,” she said. “This could mean

attending this meeting, but not leading.”

Difficult conversations, generally speaking, should be held in

private with no more than four people in attendance, Garthson said.

“If the board needs to act on a problem involving a director,

I suggest an in camera (executive session) meeting of direc-

tors only, or at most, the directors and the executive director,”

Garthson said.

The executive director should attend the executive ses-

sion only if the chair wishes her to be there and the board

agrees, Garthson said. Ask the problem director to leave for

all or part of the meeting as necessary, she said.

“If you are informing the board of a legal or human re-

sources issue that has reached a point where they need

to know, that is also best done in an executive session,”

Garthson said.

If the hard issue involves the organization’s finances,

such as inability to meet costs, that’s a strategic matter and

should be led by whoever leads the organization’s strategy

process, she said. ■