RELEVANT REVIEWS
Board Recruitment & Orientation
A Step-by-Step Common Sense Guide
2001.
Gottlieb, Hildy. Tucson, AZ:
Renaissance Press. 124 pages. Soft cover
(8.5" x 11").
www.Help4NonProfits.com
Price
$17.95 U.S.
Plus
shipping & handling and applicable taxes.
If your Board was abducted by
aliens, would the organization notice they were gone?
Would anyone pay to get them back?
Author Hildy Gottlieb, a Tucson-based
consultant and co-founder of Help 4 NonProfits and
Tribes, uses this quotation to describe her reason for
writing the book -- to enable Boards to answer "yes"
to both questions.
I have seen my share of Boards where
the answer would be a resounding "NO", and I expect
that most readers can identify at least one such Board
from their experience.
Impacting Board performance to such a
degree is a lofty objective. But given the
significant need, if Gottlieb can even make a dent in
the problem, she will have accomplished plenty.
Gottlieb identifies five steps as
critical to getting the right people on the Board, and
preparing them to perform their job effectively:
-
Define the job clearly (both the job
of the Board and the job of the individual Board
members).
-
Recruit good people.
-
Give them the tools they need to do
the job.
-
Measure Board members' performance
(the performance of both the Board and the individual
Board member).
-
Remove those who don't measure up.
Board Recruitment & Orientation: A
Step-by-Step, Common Sense Guide focuses on the
individual aspect of Step 1, and Steps 2, 3 and 4.
Gottlieb includes some resources for the other part of
Step 1, and Step 5 , at the end of the workbook.
The recruitment and training
process for Board members is presented in five steps
with 2-5 chapters focused on each step (see Table of
Contents below):
-
establishing qualifications,
-
creating written descriptions of the
duties of a board member,
-
identifying prospective directors,
-
creating an application and screening
applicants, and
-
preparing the new board member to
govern.
The best thing about this publication
is that it addresses an area often ignored by Boards
of non-profit organizations. Other good features
include the easy-to-read style, the worksheets, and
the real life stories. In addition, Gottlieb does an
excellent job of laying out the process so that a
Board can work through it themselves.
One shortcoming from
my perspective is that the
publication does not address Board
recruitment and development issues
that are common in membership-based
associations, such as the call for
nominations and election process
whereby the Board does not have full
control over who comes on the Board.
That being said, most of the
concepts can be easily applied to
membership-based groups and would
improve on what is currently done.
The charity and
agency focus is also evident in the
examples and terminology used.
Overall, this
publication would be useful for
small organizations as a blueprint
for improving Board performance.
Larger organizations with more
sophisticated Board recruitment,
orientation, training and evaluation
processes will still find the
handbook useful as a source of
additional ideas. In our experience,
even these Boards do not adequately
prepare and evaluate directors.
The publication must
be ordered from the U.S. and that is
always a headache (including a $9
U.S. S&H charge). But, in this case,
it is worth it!
Where the Publication is Available
This publication can be ordered on-line.
Table of Contents
Introduction
-
Why a Strong Recruitment and Orientation Program is Important
-
What This Book is About
-
A Note About the Role of the Board
-
How to Use this Book
-
The 5 Step Process
-
Someone Recruited Them - A STORY
Step 1: Establishing Qualifications
- Chapter 1: "Must Have"
Criteria
- Chapter 2: "Wouldn't It
Be Nice" Criteria
- Chapter 3: Never in a
Million Years" Criteria
Step 2: Board Member Job Description
- Chapter 4: Job Purpose
/ Objective
- Chapter 5: Job Duties
/ Responsibilities
Step 3: Identifying Prospects
- Chapter 6: Changing
Your Recruiting Mindset
- Chapter 7:
Recruiting from Within
Your Organization
- Chapter 8:
Recruiting from
Individuals Suggested by
Existing Board Member
- Chapter 9:
Recruiting from the
General Population
Step 4: Application Process
- Chapter 10: Let
Your Prospects Get to
Know You
- Chapter 11:
Letting the Board Get
to Know the Prospects
- Chapter 12:
Creating the
Application
- Chapter 13: What
Do You Do Next?
- Chapter 14: The
Interview
Step 5: Preparing the New Board Member to Govern
- Chapter 15:
Board Member Letter
of Commitment
- Chapter 16:
Board Manual
- Chapter 17:
Orientation Program
- Chapter 18: The
Last Step - Put Them
to Work
Afterwords
- Chapter 19:
Clearly Defining
the Role of the
Board
- Chapter 20:
Measuring Board
Members'
Performance
- Chapter 21:
What to Do with
Someone Who is NOT
Board Material
- Chapter 22: A
Free Tip Worth Its
Weight in Gold
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Wayne
Amundson is president of Association Xpertise Inc.
and Publisher/Editor of The
Canadian Association e-zine.
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