The majority of the work of any board is accomplished at and through meetings.  A board member's time is one of his or her most valuable contributions, so structure your meetings to make the best use of that time. As a follow up to an earlier post about meetings and using a consent agenda, I'd like to talk a little about other tools to help ensure that board meetings are focused and productive.  

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
Some boards use the dashboard indicator concept to quickly assess their organization's performance.  They look at a few metrics or indicators that tell them if the organization is on track in a number of areas.

In order for this concept to work board members must come to agreement on some targets for finance, human resource, program etc.  For example under finance the board would make a determination that they have an operating reserve of cash equal to XX month's of expenses.  For program they might look at a target of XX number of new clients per year, or an average client satisfaction rating of 4.2 out of 5.  The board can also set some targets for themselves in terms of board attendance or board member contributions.  For example, the target might be that board members attend 85-90% of the scheduled board meetings or that there is 100% participation by board members in terms of an annual gift.  Targets can be identified in terms of new donors or % growth in endowment or new revenus sources.  There is no limit to the number of targets that a board can set.  The basic question is what do we need to look at monthly or quarterly that will tell us how the organization is doing and help us fulfill our governance responsibilities.

Once targets are set in the various areas, board members receive a performance indicator sheet either monthly or quarterly or semi-annually that would look something like this:

FINANCE
Days of cash on hand                                                                Target:  4 months        Current status: 6 weeks

Days after month end of preparation of financial statements    Target:   5 days           Current status:  10 days

PROGRAMS
Programs are self- sustaining                                                    Target:  85%                Current status:  90%

HUMAN RESOURCES
Staff turnover rate - annually                                                      Target:  below 15%     Current status:   10%

This type of report allows board members to quickly zero in on what's important and where they should focus.   If we take the days of cash on hand example, there is a considerable stretch between the target of 4 months and the actual of 6 weeks.  Clearly action needs to be taken to meet the target.

NORMS/GROUND RULES
Many boards find it helpful at their organizational meeting to discuss how things are going to be, so that everyone understands what is expected of them.  They do this by establishing norms which are standards of behavior for the group.  They are designed to increase meeting productivity and effectiveness while creating safety for members.  The norm for setting norms is that there should be a reasonable number (4 - 6), clearly understood and supported by the group and posted as a reminder.  Each board and organization has its own culture and way of work, so the norms will vary from group to group, but I am listing a few examples below:

EXAMPLES OF NORMS
Meetings start on time
One person talks, everyone else listens
Stick to the agenda
Confidentiality is observed
No cell phones, lap tops, etc.
The meeting takes place at the meeting, not in the parking lot!

 Effective meetings are every members responsibility.  So I encourage you to take advantage of these and other meeting effectiveness tools like the consent agenda.  There will be future posts on other meeting tools, so if you have specific questions send them along and I will try and incorporate the answers into my next post.

Until next time,

Pat

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