BETTER
PRACTICES
Staff at
Board Meetings
Should
senior staff (other than the executive director) be
present at meetings of the Board?
The key to remember is that the meetings
belong to the board, and it is their decision.
Also, they have control...and having staff present does
not mean they are giving up any control.
If the Board is addressing Board issues,
then staff should be there as a resource, and not to
debate Board members. If the Board is discussing
issues that belong to staff, then having staff present
is not the answer. The correct response is for the
Board to stop getting into staff issues.
Staff can be an excellent resource as
they bring knowledge and skills related to the matter
under consideration... but they need to let the Board
decide how to use what staff brings...that is the
Board's work.
Even for contentious discussions, if the
Board is confident in its role, then contentious
discussions need not require the absence of staff.
Most items could be discussed with staff
present, although some items may require the Board to go
into committee of the whole or in camera. If the
Board has numerous issues that are considered
confidential, then they may be dipping into activities
that are more appropriately handled by staff.
The
practices described in this area are described as Better
Practices for a very good reason. We have a great
deal of difficulty with the term best practices
used in any other context than to refer to the results
of benchmarking exercises involving real and relevant
organizations with tangible results. We offer Better
Practices related to areas where we feel that change
is needed in associations. Better Practices
are intended to provoke thought, and to encourage
organizations to think about what they are doing and how
they are doing it.
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