For many people, especially those new to board work, the belief is that the main work of the board takes place at official, formal meetings. In fact, a great deal of important work takes place outside of board meetings. Nevertheless, boards are required to hold formal meetings and the quality of those meetings can make a considerable difference to board effectiveness. Meetings that are poorly organized, go on too long,, go off on tangents instead of sticking to the point, or feature too many personalities can turn off even the most dedicated member and can cause serious damage by leading to poorly considered decisions. In this podcast, Profs Cafik and Murray explores board effectiveness in the board meeting context, challenges boards commonly experience with meetings, why they persist, and the research on what boards have changed to increase meeting effectiveness.

All boards have some formality that specifies and supports the way the board governs and operates. Once structures and procedures are in place they often come to be taken for granted and their influence on the board goes unrecognized. The result is that they are rarely reviewed in assessments of board performance and updated. This episode explores board structures and procedures, defining what they are and the role they play in board governance. The episode also explores common challenges boards experience with structures and procedures, why they occur, and change boards have implemented in response to them.

Effectively performing the board's role in fundraising and developing resources for the organization is the most common challenge reported by both board members and those with whom they interact. Dissatisfaction can come from lack of clarity of the board's role in fundraising, activities related to fundraising, and/or lack of capability to engage in fundraising. This webinar explores the main reasons for dissatisfaction with the board's role, how to diagnose fundraising challenges, and what boards have done about them to increase success.

Board of nonprofit organizations are required to exert due diligence in ensuring that the organizations they govern are achieving their missions effectively and efficiently. But what about due diligence assessments of board performance to ensure the board is governing effectively and meeting accountability objectives. In this podcast, Professor Yvonne Cafik, PhD explores what due diligence looks like in the board performance assessment context, the issues that challenge boards, why they exist, and general approaches to improving the board's ability to carry out the full range of performance assessment responsibilities.

It is commonly accepted "best practice" that a major role for boards ought to be thinking about the "big picture" of how the organization is doing and where it ought to be heading in the future. It is usually recommended that this kind of thinking be captured in a "Strategic Plan" which can be used as a guide by all in the organization in making specific policy decisions. In this webinar, the Board's Role in Planning is discussed, challenges boards commonly experience, why they occur, and what boards have done about them.

While virtually everyone agrees that the role of the board in nonprofit organizations is to enable them to achieve their mission, differences arise when it comes to specifying exactly what the board's authority and responsibilities should be. In fact, this is one of the most frequently written about topic in the literature on nonprofit organization boards. Since most nonprofits have a paid top manager, the question arises: What should the board's role and authority be compared to that held by those in management positions? In this podcast, Professor Yvonne Cafik presents on the topic and explores this question with nonprofit leaders to discuss the underlying issues, why boards and managers become confused, and how to clarify roles and responsibilities to govern and manage effectively.

In Season 2, the nine dimensions of board effectiveness assessed in the Board Checkup are explored with nonprofit leaders. Each webinar explores a dimension assessed in the instrument. Board effectiveness is defined theoretically and common issues that can challenge board effectiveness are presented and discussed along with theories about why they exist, and change boards have implemented in response to them.

The podcast will be of interest to board chairs, CEOS, and directors looking for accessible and affordable research-based tools and resources to measure, track, and develop in leadership and governance effectiveness. It will also be of interest to consultants working with boards as well as regulators and funders concerned about board accountability and impact. Finally, it will be of interest to faculty and students of nonprofit leadership looking for case studies that explore the complex nature of governance, the governance context in different cultures and countries, and the range of leadership roles and responsibilities boards and directors play in the organizations they govern.

In this episode of THEBOARDCHECKUP, Dr. Cafik interviews Executive Director, Angie Bush about her experience with the practice of performance assessment and the impact it had on the leadership and governance of Hospitality House. Some of the lessons I learned from the Hospitality House experience with the practice of performance assessment are:

1. It helped the board shift focus from a working board engaged in day to day operations to a governing board that thinks and acts strategically.
2. It resulted in an increase in board member confidence, role clarity, responsibility, and camaraderie, which, in turn, had a positive effect on staff morale and productivity.
3. The decisions the board made on what to change were consensual and evidence-based.
4. The process resulted in an acknowledgement of the leadership role and contributions of the Executive Director to the board and the need for an executive assistant!

Please listen to the interview and let us know what you learned from the Hospitality House experience with the practice of board performance assessment and whether you think this case is another great board love story at info@boardcheckup.com.