Keeping Policy Governance^® Healthy When Board Members Change

Will Policy Governance survive as the modus operandi of a board when board membership changes? That depends on the foresight of the Board. The Board has an obligation to ensure that accumulated "learning" about governance is not lost when new members are added to the Board. Boards would do well to give some advance thought to the issue of "governance succession."

Desirable Qualifications for Board Members

If Board members are appointed directly by your organization, recruiting members with the desirable qualifications is relatively straightforward. However, even if members are elected, or appointed by another body, making available in advance to appointing authorities and to potential board candidates as much information as possible about what the board does, how it operates and the desirable attributes of board members can have a positive impact on board composition. Board members should:

• Be committed to the "owners" (e.g., the community, the membership, etc.) and prepared to invite them to help shape the vision.
• Be prepared to make decisions in the best interests of the entire ownership, not just a single constituency.
• Understand the "big picture"- be able to think in terms of systems and context.
• Be able to deal with values, vision and the long term.
• Be able and willing to participate actively in deliberation, and to abide by the intent of established policies.
• Be able to tolerate dealing with issues that cannot be settled quickly.
• Be prepared to support the board's final choice even though they may disagree with it.
• Be willing to delegate and allow others to make decisions.
• Be able to measure each decision against the standard of what is right.

Developing a Board Manual

If your board does not already have a manual, you may want to develop one as part of the orientation package for new board members. Consider a binder format for easy updating, with the following sections:

• Legislation under which the Board operates
• Board Bylaws
• Board Policies (Governance Process, Executive Limitations, Board-CEO Relationship, Ends)
• Minutes of previous meetings (archive on a regular basis)
• Monitoring reports (cumulate for a year, then archive)
• Board Agenda Cycle (roughed out plan for a year)
• Governance Action Plan (the board's own goals for itself - not for the organization)
• Optional General Information about the organization (be careful that this section does not become an "administration" document - remember this is a board manual.)
• "Working Information" section for background material related to future decisions. [You may prefer to keep such information separately, but I find it useful to keep such information handy until a decision is made.]

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