Setting Up New Board Directors for Success
This article is fourth in a series of reflections on the Roles and Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards: It’s Time for Some R & R: That’s Roles & Responsibilities - Not Rest & Relaxation
When joining a new group, whether it be an employer, family, or neighborhood, it’s awful to feel like you don’t belong because you don’t know what’s going on.
You look at those who surround you, and you wonder, “Who are these people?” “What are they talking about, and why are they even talking about it?”
It's because you are trying to fit into a culture that has a set way of doing things. Its members share a collective history and language, or abide by unspoken rules.
The result can be a sense of alienation, of not being welcomed. 𝐈𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩.
When someone joins a board of directors, the same can happen. New board members may feel lost or left out; they don’t understand the board’s dynamics, common language, or operational history.
It’s the board’s responsibility to minimize the opportunity for this to happen and to provide new directors with resources that help them feel that they belong and are equipped to contribute as soon as possible.
This process starts even before the director is elected. Boards should:
Require candidates to visit the organization’s various locations, to meet staff and to see its mission in action.
Provide candidates with minutes from the board’s last four meetings, six months of financial statements, most recent audit, strategic plan, and bylaws.
Require that they attend at least one meeting of the board as an observer.
Once a candidate is placed on the board, the Board Governance Committee or its equivalent should host a thorough orientation in which directors and some staff participate. Topics should include:
The organization’s history, history, structure, and programs
Organizational challenges
Committee structure and function
A review of the budget, budgeting process, and the history of significant revenue sources
A list of commonly used acronyms and what they mean. 𝐴𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑦𝑚𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑎 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑧𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑢𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡, 𝑖𝑓 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑑, 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑏𝑒 𝑎 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑙𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛.
Finally, a mentor should be assigned to any new director, so that the two can converse between meetings, answer questions, explain history, dynamics, etc.
The goal of all of this is to provide new directors with information that will enable them to assimilate into the culture, engendering a sense of belonging.
It is about setting new directors up for success.