Part 1
We all hope to be a member of, or work with, a truly effective and impactful board that steers the association towards a path of success. To enable your board to have the insights, impact and overall tools needed to reach that goal, one of the crucial first steps is to provide an informative and actionable board orientation. You wouldn’t hire someone and expect them to deliver outstanding results with no information or guidance, so why would you treat your board members any differently?
In this first part of this Board Orientation four-part series, we’ll review what three essential components must be present in any orientation.
A strong board orientation requires a few crucial elements at a minimum – who you are as an organization, what governs your decisions and the current outlined path. These items can provide a strong base, though we’d encourage you to dedicate enough time to include discussions on specific roles, responsibilities and insights that make your organization unique.
First, it’s helpful to always start with who your organization is – your mission and vision statements of course, but also, who are your members and what makes them unique? What are the demographics you’re tracking for your key stakeholders? What are your key engagement factors for your membership, industry and circle of influence? In order to equip your board to make strong, informed decisions, these are key elements of your organizational identity they must have insights into. Include actual numbers and trends as much as possible. Inclusions may include membership numbers such as new, renewing and/or lapsed members and the corresponding retention rates, member demographics, sponsorship income, conference attendee figures or abstract submission numbers. Include the areas that reflect the core initiatives and mission-driven programs of your organization in a way that’s easily digestible (e.g. graphs for trends or focused key metrics).
Once you know who you are, you must be aware of the other factors that govern how you make decisions. These include your bylaws and policies, but also applicable laws for the country and/or region your organization operates in. What liability do those laws open up for your organization and your board members? What steps must be taken to ensure compliance? And you can take it one step further by describing how your governing documents outline the designation of roles and responsibilities for the various board positions and/or committees. Be sure to include board privacy, ethics, anti-trust, conflict of interest and whistleblower policies, as applicable, in this section. This would also include a review of the three legal duties of a board (duties of care, loyalty and obedience) – all explained in language that resonates with your board members.
With the solid footing of who you are and how you operate, you must also prepare your board for the outlined path in place. What is your current strategic plan? Walk your board through the plan and current status of outlined goals. This will provide the context needed to review, deliberate and properly weigh decisions and discussions – and empower your board to actively engage from the start.
There are many additional items you may want to consider including in a board orientation, but for those boards with limited time together, these three items must be included to set up your board for success. Our next article in this series will explore additional components to consider adding to your board orientation to provide a deeper and wider insight into the association. We will also cover ideas and tips for holding orientations in a number of different formats to encourage active engagement, and then finish with additional volunteer leaders and groups that might benefit from a uniquely tailored orientation to ensure their success.
Read part 2 and part 3 of the Board Orientation blog series on the Acumen blog.