Archive for the ‘Board Meetings’ Category

It’s a great idea to evaluate every meeting or committee meeting that you hold.  But you want something painless and simple, that will actually encourage people to participate.

One organization I belong to has breakfast speakers once a month, and members pay to come for breakfast and the speaker.

This organization sends an email to all attendees immediately after the meeting, asking them to fill out an evaluation survey on SurveyMonkey. They get good, not great, response on the survey.

Another board that I serve on solicit evaluations immediately after the meeting. In our board packets, there is a convenient evaluation form to fill out.  Here’s what’s on the form:

Share your thoughts about the board meeting:

Meeting room?

Stick to the agenda?

Liked the agenda?

Did we miss anything important”

People were prepared?

Reports clear and helpful?

Cordial, team-like discussion?

Appropriate use of our time? (meeting began and eneded on time?)

Any other comments?

Anything we could improve?

In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge our organization faces this year?

What were your big take-away’s from the meeting?

I am teaching today in Greensboro, NC at the AFP CFRE Review Course and the AFP First Course in Fundraising.  As usual, they have me talking about managing and motivating volunteers and board members.

In my last class, we had such a laugh over “Boards Gone Wild.“  What do I mean?

A Board Gone Wild is a well-meaning group of volunteers who gallop off in the wrong direction.  It’s the wrong direction because the plan or project they are espousing is not well-planned, not well-thought out, has unintended negative consequences, and cannot be pulled off with the current staff and human resources on hand.

Here’s a typical example: Board members are desperate for easy fundraising short cuts.  Board member Bob recalls a golf tournament that made over $75,000.  (He never saw all the back end work that made it happen – he just saw a seamless event on the day of.)

Other board members grab on to the idea. To them this seems like an easy way out.  Let’s do a golf tournament!  No matter that we will need to pull it off within a six week time frame, leaving little time to solicit sponsors.  Not a problem!

If we can’t do it then the staff can help, right? No matter if it’s not in our fundraising plan, we can heap additional stuff on our already overworked staff easily. No matter if they will have to bail out our non-performing volunteer group at the last minute.  No matter if all our major donors have already been solicited recently, we can always go back to them.  And on and on.

Meanwhile the staff has fainted.  They  know what the fundraising plan is for the year and it sure doesn’t call for a golf tournament. They know that golf tournaments, of all things, require an enormous commitment of organizational time and energy to be successful.

The staff is trying to speak up but they are brushed off in the wake of the board galloping down the road to a possible disaster.    Can this board be saved???

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not picking on golf tournaments.  In fact, they are excellent fundraising tools when planned for properly and when supported with appropriate staff and volunteer energy. They are just the example I am using.

There are many examples of Boards Gone Wild.  It could be a pancake supper (groan), a new staff member or fundraising consultant who will be the silver bullet, something called “grantwriting” that will be the magic solution to all the organization’s challenges.

What’s YOUR EXAMPLE of a Board Gone Wild?

Come on and share your own experience!

Morale is an issue for everyone these days, particularly with the end of the fiscal year staring us in the face.  Morale is often an issue with board members as well who liable to lose heart with all too much bad news.  

I have developed a sure-fire exercise that wakes everybody up, gets them talking, smiling and enjoying themselves, gives them their own chance to speak, fans the flames of their energy and passion, and reconnects them with the reason they are taking the time out of their busy lives to serve on the board.

Tall order you might say! But try this – and I’ll bet you get the same results!  I described this morale-boosting exercise for board members in my recent webinar “Six New Rules for Board Members in Changing Times,” which was sold out early. (I’ve decided to offer the webinar again on July 16th if you’d like to join us.)

So let me share with you this fabulous exercise: You won’t believe how easy it is. But it does require some discipline on your part and willingness to try something new on your board’s part.

I begin every single one of my “Easy Fundraising for Board Members” retreats with this exercise – and it never fails.

Here’s a simple question to ask them: “Why do you care about our organization?” It’s a pretty unusual question because board members don’t often get a chance to talk about why they care. They are too busy doing business and being efficient.

In the interest of using their time wisely, we too often just don’t take the time to go deeper and touch their hearts or hear their story. We’re responsible if they are disengaged or bored, because we are the ones who make the agendas and decide how they are going to use their time with us.

But you won’t believe what happens when you just ask this question! This is the conversation that can fan the flames of a board member’s energy and passion. I am always amazed and pleased with what it evokes in people. It helps them get back in touch with that deep caring they have in their hearts for your cause.

This is the core reason why they are with you, and why they are willing to share their precious spare time on your cause instead of something else.

Here’s how I set up this most important conversation so that no one is self conscious or feels put on the spot. I do a “mingle exercise.” It’s an exercise in which board members mingle around the room and share their own perspective with four or five different people.

Here’s how to set this exercise up.
     1. Ask your board members what they would say to someone who asked them why they cared enough to serve on this board. If they ran into someone at work or socially, what would they say?
   – (You might also ask them “what legacy do you want to leave from serving on the board?” or perhaps “what speaks to you personally about the good work we do in the world?”)
     2. Give them a few moments to write down some notes to themselves – what would they really say if given the chance?
     3. Then tell them in just a minute we will ask everyone in the room to share these thoughts with FOUR other board members.
     4. Explain the exercise: “Find a partner, introduce yourself to them in case they may not know you well, and then share your story. Each person should take just about 30 seconds. When you finish with your partner, then go find another partner and chat with them.”
     5.  Then launch them: “Everybody up!” Have them stand up, go around the room, and share their perspective briefly with four or five other board members, one after the other.

It’s great to debrief when everyone is finished.  Ask everybody first what their experience was when they were doing this.  What were they saying? How were they being? Was it easy?  Was it even fun? What did you learn from other board members?

When they do the mingle exercise, they will find themselves saying over and over why they really care about the organization and what is deeply meaningful to them about your mission.

It evokes exactly what they should be saying to their friends and acquaintances: something personal and from the heart. And it reinforces it because they repeat it again and again.

This mingle exercise has a very special added benefit: it is also a “re-kindling” conversation.

As your board member talks repeatedly about what sparks his enthusiasm or interest in your organization’s work, he is re-igniting his own passion as he speaks. He is reminding himself about the difference you make; and why it is personally important to him.

Remember, most board members don’t know what to say about your organization! This exercise gives them low-key, but most valuable, practice talking about your cause, in a natural and spontaneous way.

They also learn from other board members; they get great energy from the other folks in the room; and they enjoy themselves.

When you do this exercise, you’ll be surprised by the excitement and fun that it generates. You’ll see people laughing and smiling. Board members love to talk to each other and they rarely get the chance.

It’s a great energy boost and refreshing shift away from boring board meetings – AND it’s the best morale booster I’ve ever seen.

When they are re-inspired by their own passion for the cause, board members are now ready to go to work. Because they get back in touch with the deeper issue of why they care, then they are much more ready to tackle the work at hand with vigor – and commitment.

I’ll bet that if you do this before a meeting, you’ll find that it’s one of the best meetings you’ve ever had with this group. At least that’s what some of my fundraising friends say who have put this conversation in front of their board.

Try it and post a comment here to let me know how it worked!

Focus the agenda on results. Decide what is needed most out of this meeting and tell your board members what you need: “By the end of this meeting, we need to accomplish x, y, and z.” That will get their attention.

Be creative with the agenda. Look for ways to tweak the meeting plan to evoke your board members’ passion for your cause. Perhaps there’s a way of presenting a report that is more song-and-dance and less a dry recital of figures. Think of ways that you can humanize any presentation and bring it to life.

Consider occasionally throwing out the agenda altogether. Although radical, consider the benefits: the board creates its own agenda by consensus at the beginning of the meeting. That way everyone is immediately paying more attention to the work that needs to get accomplished.

Focus on problems, challenges, or ambiguous issues. This will activate your board members’ various backgrounds and skills sets, not to mention their interest. It will allow you to draw upon a deeper reservoir of their talent and energy, and will give them more interesting work.

Plan big. Bring big-picture strategic planning issues into regular board meetings. For example, take the standard strategic planning issues focusing on organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats,(SWOT analysis) and work them into regular meeting agendas.

Look at your board meetings as cheerleading sessions designed to f ire up your board

members and put them into action.

Use consent agendas for routine business items that do not require much board discussion.

Interview the CEO. Consider allowing time for the board members to interview the CEO about what is on his/her mind. What keeps the CEO up at night?

Let the board members do the talking.  They will be far more interested in the work at hand. Set up agendas with 70% of the time in conversation and 30% of the time listening to presentations.

Always choose one interesting item and set it up for a discussion.

he real world