Facilitator for Board Retreats

Board Governance and Training: Create a Dream Team Board

Gail is an expert facilitator who can create alignment on goals and agreement among board members. She creates high-impact, results-oriented board retreats that are also enjoyable for all participants.

Take your board to a new level with a refreshing session focusing on board effectiveness. Gail can reinvigorate your board, helping each member find the ideal role, build new skills and contribute personal vision to your organization.  Just about every board needs to refocus on its appropriate role governing the organization and set new goals for performance.

Trained in organizational development skills, Gail creates deeper discussions about your organization’s and your board’s purpose that help your board members get re-connected and re-invigorated.

Planning Retreats:

The annual board retreat is the right time to pull everyone together, appreicate accomplishments, identify future challenges, and develop strategies to succeed in the future.There are two keys to success with your board retreat:  one, you have to have a great facilitator who can manage the group for results, and also a clear, well-defined set of questions to discuss.

Here are some sample approaches for a planning retreat:

If you go back and re-focus on your mission – what are we really trying to accomplish? – then it drives all your other policy and programming decisions, and becomes the basis for all your strategic decisions.  It helps focus everyone that your organization is really about helping the people you serve, and not about financial management or any other area.

Here are some strategic visioning questions you might want to consider:

• What should we exist and what should we exist for?
• In what ways should our organization be different from what it is now?
• What should it not become?  How should it remain the same?
• What does our organization need to do to support the interests, needs and expectations of our key stakeholders?
• What types of clients should we serve? And what types of services, benefits should we provide?

Then the next steps is to determine the critical issues that are currently facing the organization.  This “critical issue” discussion then becomes the main focus of the day.

Board Facilitation

Have a thorny subject or urgent matter to resolve? Gail can help set up a productive discussion designed to encourage dialogue and reach consensus among a divided board. She can help you create a more closely knit board with a new level of collegiality and commitment.

“Gail Perry’s approach to facilitation continued long after our retreat was finalized.  Our Board was sharply divided about our future before the retreat. Gail helped us come to an agreement on non-negotiable goals.  Her approach gave us a clear vision and marching orders.  It has worked quite well. We have achieved solid success thanks to Gail Perry.

- Ruth Summers, Executive Director, Grove Arcade