Nominations

Search for New Members

Looking for new board members or volunteers or even staff?  Perhaps you can consider using a model frequently employed by Realtors.  Often heard is the refrain, ‘we need new members for the board.’  It is equivalent of stating that you are looking for a house in Nashville, TN.  Where to start?  I would be asking some leading questions before I started giving recommendations.

If you can provide some detail to your search.  Perhaps I am looking for three bedrooms, two bath, near a park and easy to get to the airport.  I now have details to work with and my map gets more specific.



When you put out a call for new members or volunteers, try to paint a picture and see if your results are more successful.  Are you looking for a representative of Generation X, who is female, has social media skills, and experience with finance and small business?  I might know that person by name.  Without directions I might just nominate my best friend who is very much like me and brings an existing perspective and skill set to the organization.  It is the same as telling your friends only about the homes for sale in you neighborhood.


Board Nominations

The BBC ran an interesting interview of members of British Parliment who were stepping down after long careers.  A question that struck me as meaningful during the radio piece was, ‘what will you miss when you leave?’  To borrow that question and ask it of your board members should offer some meaningful insight into what they treasured most about their service.  By asking such an open-ended question you get an assessment of your organization’s culture and collegiality. 

One way to think about your board nominations is to consider who you would invite to on a backcountry winter yurt trip.  There are numerous responsibilities that need to be accounted for (melting snow, splitting fire wood, cooking, route finding, assembling group gear).  You need a variety of skill sets.  Who would you consider?  Who would exhibit favorable team expedition behavior?  Considering not only the talents of each individual but there ability to build chemistry among the team has increasingly become a valued attribute.  Of course, not all board nominations start at the talent level.  The New York Times ran a pieces yesterday that confirmed a trend that many of us are seeing repeated across the sector.  Advancing new board members with money to give is the highest priority, even if an organization is saying come and serve on our board as an ATM.  I believe there is a better way to engage major donors than slotting them all onto the board but that is another post.

What has worked so successfully for your enterprise? 

Loading the Lift

Adding a new member to your nonprofit board is a bit like managing a lift line at a ski area.  A good governance process is hopefully always in the process of adding potential board members to the line and then guiding towards the loading area.  You are checking their interest and measuring their skills in the same way a lift attendant checks a ski pass.  The lift line provides an opportunity to have a conversation about their interest and prepare them for the experience.  Ultimately your goal is to load the lift without having to slow or stop the chair.  The skiers on chairlift have a common goal, to keep it going as efficiently and safely as possible.  If the lift needs to come to a stop it feels like all momentum has been lost.  A long stop feels painful, especially when you are out-of-sight of the loading or unloading zones and have no idea what incident has taken place.  When you add board members who is not prepared or oriented, they typically require assistance and the loading process comes to stop while they get prepared.  Or an unprepared board member stands watching multiple chairs go by without loading before they load themselves, this slows the nomination process for many organizations.  A inefficient loading process can be frustrating and demoralizing to the rest of the board and limit the ski lifts capacity.


How do you use your nominating process as a chance to have a lift-line conversation with potential board members?  How do you prepare them for what to expect?  Do you partner them with an existing board member to ride your ski lift the first time?

(Image: conorneill.com)

Checklists

Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande is a great reminder of how a simple approach builds long term performance and consistency.  Although the checklists reviewed by the author were developed and tested in the medical world with an aim at reducing infections and deaths the tactic is applicable far beyond the ICU.  The application of a checklist strategy to business and nonprofit worlds are evident and meaningful.  When preparing for a consulting engagement I often use a checklist to outline the client’s outcomes and manage the process.  Although it feels a bit like baby-steps it helps reduce the number of times a board retreat tries to do a 180 in the middle of the day because I missed the client’s intended outcome.  Why re-invent the wheel every time you appoint a new Chair for your organization’s largest fundraiser.  Imagine how much easier it would be to recruit a new volunteer to lead your next major event if there was clarity about the role and a template to follow.  Another opportunity exists with the orientation of new board members.  Many new board members take a couple meetings to get up to speed and begin contributing to the board’s deliberation.  Does a document exist within your organization to get the newest members involved more rapidly and effectively?  A few examples of unique checklists:

  • An outgoing Board Chair leaving a checklist for the incoming Board Chair.  The checklist outlines some basic strategies for general responsiblities over the course of the coming year.  Illustrations from the list: meet with each board member individually twice a year to hear their needs and thoughts; hold an annual gathering with the Advisory Council.
  • Board nominating procedures.  Have a checklist for the process that starts with identifying new board members and continues from cultivation to nomination.  Few boards have a wait-list of potential new board members and therefore the process is best not left for the last minute when it appears unprofessional and the pool of potential new board members may not be as anticipated.
  • Assessment of the CEO should be a consistent and transparent process.  How un-nerving for a CEO or Board Chair if the proceedure needs to be recreated each year or is only considered when a problem exists.
  • Roles of the board.  Give a checklist to each board member and allow them to mark the responsibilities as they accomplish them:  80% attendance of board meeting, Annual Fund contribution, serve on one committee or task force, attend three programs, advocate for the enterprise in a peer or business circle, write thank notes to 20 donors… the list is customized to your organization’s greatest needs but the steps are clear.



I have encouraged clients to take a few moments to design a simple checklist for some element of their organization that is critical but deemed reasonably simple.  One enterprise created a checklist for reviewing the financial statement during a board meeting.  Initially, only a few board member really knew what they were looking at during the report.  Now the Finance Chair walks step-by-step through the reports and everyone at the meeting understands the information and can truly fulfill their responsibility as a fiduciary.


What checklist might be most meaningful to your organization?  How would it change your organization’s effectiveness if you got the process correct almost every time?