Video Transcript: Key Board Management Issues

Hi everybody. Welcome back to how to develop a ministry board. We're deep  into it, and we've gone through the five phases, and now I want to talk about the  makeup of the board. And you were wondering, why didn't you begin with that in  the beginning? Well, it's just the way it went. So hopefully, hopefully you've got  an understanding of what a board does, the responsibilities, the phases, the  different phases, the five phases that we talked about. But now we want to talk  about the makeup, the constitution of a board of a board, so let's take a look at  that. So what board officers should we have? What board officers are needed to  constitute a board for a ministry? Well, all boards have board chairs. That's a  requirement. You have to have a chairman, no matter how big or small your  board is, and the chair is a person who manages the board and is the direct is  liaison with the CEO or the or the executive director or the ministry director, and  so they have a collaboration, and it's a lot of things are key to that relationship,  but mostly what the board chair does is manage the board and make sure that  there that everything adheres to the policies that the business is taking care of,  or the ministry is doing the things that it needs to do, working with the CEO. Now I just want to make it clear that let me go back again. Let's see had a hiccup.  Just bear with me. So let me make it clear, the board chair does not manage the operations of the ministry or or the task of the ministry. That's what the executive directory, the director, the ministry director does. They are the ones who are  responsible for the operational aspects of it, of the ministry, the chair is  responsible for Board Governance and making sure that the CEO or Executive  Director or the ministry director does their job. And so those two you can't the  ministry, the board chair cannot is it's against the rules. I should say you should  the board chair, should not interfere in what the CEO is doing in terms of leading and guiding the staff. But there should be some some conversation, there  should be some collaboration, some communication on what's going on from  operational standpoint. Are you meeting your goals? Are you achieving the  success that we establish in our strategic plan? But the board chair is  responsible for managing the board. The board has oversight of the organization to make sure it's doing what it needs to do from a financial, financial and legal  standpoint. So that's what the chair does. In some organizations, there's a Vice  Chair, if the organization is big enough. And what the vice chair does is really it  provides additional leadership in the aspect that when the chair is out, or when  the chair is otherwise occupied, that the vice chair can step in and lead the  board. And that'll happen sometimes. And one of the other roles for a vice chair  is really significant, major projects that the board and the staff are working on,  major initiatives, that's that's one of the roles that a vice chair can do. So a chair  and a vice chair, not every organization needs a vice chair. You need a chair, but not necessarily a vice chair. That's what we talked about. One of the phases  talking about making sure that your structure fits your organization. It may be  that you don't need a vice chair. The next role or the next officer that a board 

should have is a secretary, and the Secretary has all the responsibility for the  board related documents, for instance, the minutes, any of the documents that  are given as adjunct to the meetings, and just the legal papers, all those things  the Secretary is responsible for, Making sure that the minutes are in order,  making sure the documents are in order, making sure everything lines up for the chair in in the in the effective officer, the chief effective officer. So that's  important role. That's important function. You know, at CLC, we have a  wonderful board secretary, Brian De Cook. He was the former chair, and he just  takes phenomenal minutes, and he's just a great fount of intelligence and  wisdom, and we couldn't do anything without him. But anyway, he is the  Secretary, whether he or she is responsible for those board minutes and making sure that the documentation from the meetings, the documentation that come  from those meetings, are accessible and that they're documented. Now we have a treasurer. The Treasurer is really the person who has the financial oversight of  financial operations. You may have on staff. You may have a financial director,  but the treasurer is responsible for all the outcomes of the financial operations,  and really responsible for making sure that there's an audit for the organization.  So it's an important position. So those are the three positions. There's three  positions that every board should have, chair, secretary and treasurer. You may  need a vice chair and you may not, and that goes in line with the scope or the  size of your particular organization, your particular ministry. So those are the  board officers that you should have a chair, a secretary and a treasurer and  maybe a Vice Chair, if needed, a vice chair that's needed. So one of the things  that is important is to have the best board that you can and and if they said  there's, there's a certain, certain things that the best boards do, or best practices that the best boards are accomplished at, and so you Need the board to make  sure that are performing, that the organization or the ministry is performing at  the highest level. And so you want to have high performance at the board level  as well. So the board, the best boards, do five certain things. Number one, they  have a strong culture and a strong board chair. Let me tell you what that means.  That means that they are engaged. That means that every board member is  engaged. One of the things I left out, and I'm gonna talk about a little bit later in  the next session, is, you know, we talk about trustees. So you have board, you  have a board chair, you have a secretary, you have a treasurer, and you have  trustees. It may be three, it may be 10 and maybe 15, that you have that group,  and the best boards are engaged. Every member is engaged, and if they're not  engaged, it's the board's chair. Board chair's responsibility to make sure that  folks are engaged, whether they're engaged in debating or discussing the work  of the organization, whether they're involved in communities where they're, I'm  sorry, involved in committees where they're working with each other to  accomplish certain tasks. So those are it's important to have that culture. That  culture really has to be collaborative. In other words, everyone should be 

making a contribution. Everyone should have a voice, and the board chair  should be facilitating an environment where that flourishes, where everyone is a  necessary part of the board functioning. So that's what the best boards have.  They have a great culture, collaborative culture. They have a strong board chair, that board chair will pull people in, make sure that everyone's engaged, and that the chair make sure that the CEO, the executive director, ministry director, that  we're all on the same page. And so that's what we talk about, having a strong  culture, and that's valued within that board itself. And so number two,  composition, composition, that means it says diverse membership and  expertise. That doesn't mean you know that you know you want to have  someone that has a very level experience. You will have folks who can  contribute. It's good to have folks who have financial background, who have  strategic planning background, who have ministry background, but the more you have that makes for a rich environment. It makes for a wonderful think tank, so  to speak. And that think tank can accomplish a whole lot, because they come at  it from diverse perspectives. And so that makes for, you know, wonderful,  wonderful combination. So that's, that's the reason why you want to have  diversity so you can have different views. Just think about the board that would  be vanilla. In other words, everyone would think the same. They would march in  the same tempo. And. They will have the same ideas, and nothing will come out  of that. But if you have different folks from different backgrounds with different  experience and different levels of experience, then you have something to draw  from. And if the board chairs responsibility to draw that out, make sure that that's coming to the forefront. And so when you have a diverse membership and you  have all types of expertise. Oh, that's a wonderful recipe for gumbo. I love  gumbo. And if you get the right ingredients, it tastes good. So, so we want to  make sure we have the right composition. Then the structure, the structure, you  know, as we was talking about, you know, sometimes you need to have less and sometimes you need to have more to support the mission. And for that particular board, you want to make sure you refresh the board. So there should be some  term limits. There should be no one to have a life time membership at a part of  the board, you want to make sure you're hearing fresh voices and that you're  rotating through the President, the Secretary, the Treasurer, all those those  areas, so that you will have fresh eyes and a fresh perspective. So you want to  look at your structure, make sure your structure is fresh. And so the processes,  you know, those processes include the strategic reviews, the strategic planning,  but we're also talking about reviewing the CEOs performance, reviewing the  board's performance, reviewing the board chair's performance, and making sure that from those assessments, from those reviews, that we set the right priorities, not just individually, not just collectively, but from a mission or ministry  standpoint. And so the next one, the last one is high performing individuals. You  want folks who are engaged. You want folks who are prepared. You want folks 

who are on fire and have a passion for this particular ministry and that every  time they come up, they show up, they're ready, they're prepared, and they have something to say, and they are advocates or champions for that ministry, and  they're champions for the people who are working on the staff. In other words,  all things work together for good and so high performing individuals. They're  advocates. They want the best. They have high expectations, not just for the  ministry, but for themselves. They go above and beyond. So those are the things that we need to look at. So I just we talked about what you need to have in a  particular board. You need to have a chair, you need to have a secretary, you  need to have a treasurer. Maybe you have a vice chair, but then the best  boards, the best boards, have a culture that necessitates or that creates  success, that's collaborative, that looks inside, that reviews its own performance, and that has high expectations. So that's what the best boards do. And so I hope this helps, and thank you for joining us. We have one more segment to go, and I hope you've been enjoying this, but until I see you next time. God bless and be  encouraged.