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Understand the roles and responsibilities of boards and committees in nonprofit organizations, including decision-making, policy setting, fundraising, and community engagement.
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Boards and Committees Forming Task Groups and Teams
Almost all organizations establish formal structures to facilitate group decision-making and to set policy. • Boards are the primary decision-making structure in nonprofit organizations. • In most nonprofit organizations, board members are volunteers. • Board members set policies, hire and fire the director, monitor how funds are spent, and are legally responsible for everything that happens in the organization. • On some boards, members may be expected to fundraise, lobby on behalf of the organization with government, help obtain publicity for the organization, or volunteer to help run programs or deliver services. • Organizations generally look for board members that are influential in the community, have connections to other powerful people, or that can raise money. In some cases, organizations look for board members that have special skills that can be used to help the organization (for example, lawyers, accountants, social workers etc.). • Clients or community residents may be seated on boards if they are believed to be knowledgeable about client needs or if they can provide a link between the organization and the community.
Holland (1998) identifies six competency areas for board members: • Contextual. The board understands the norms and values that influence the organization’s culture and uses this understanding to guide its actions. • Educational. The board makes sure that all members are informed about organization operations and their own roles in decision-making. • Interpersonal. The board members engage in activities that help them develop a sense of group cohesion. • Analytical. Board members adequately gain an understanding of the issues they address and take into account a variety of perspectives on these issues. • Political. The board develops and maintains good relationships with constituency groups within and outside the organization. • Strategic. The board is actively involved in making decisions that pertain to the organization’s future direction.
Boards have: • Officers (usually President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer). • Rules for making decisions (By-laws). • A set of formal procedures (Roberts Rules of Order) in most organizations. • Established meeting times • A predetermined number of members
There are different views about the board’s relationship with the executive director: • Partnership between the board and the director. • The director does most of the work because he or she has expertise. The board simply makes policy based on what the director tells them. • The executive director follows the orders of the board.
Executive Directors should have the following skills: • Choosing information to be presented to the board. • Selecting items to be placed on the agenda. • Building working partnerships with board members. • Using effective verbal and written communication of recommendations for policies and procedures. • The ability to work with a variety of people • The ability to communicate the experiences and perspectives of clients and staff to the board and to advocate, as appropriate for these constituency groups. • The ability to communicate with board members about strategies that should be used for interactions with people and institutions in the organization’s external environment • The ability to work with the board and other key constituency groups to develop operational and strategic (long-term) plans for the organization (Hardina & Malott, 1996a; Holland, 1998; Murray et al., 1992; Tropman, 1997).
Roberts Rules are used by many boards to guide decision-making • Based on a formal, hierarchical structure. • Requires that proposals for decisions be made in terms of motions – motion must be seconded, a period of discussion is allowed, and then there is a vote. Motions and votes are recorded in the board minutes • Involves majority rule. • Chair (usually the Board President is in charge) • Strict use of Robert’s Rules can tie up decision-making.
Not everyone uses or likes the Robert’s Rules model • Some people are more comfortable with consensus. • A modified form of Robert’s Rules can be used that includes consensus building.
Appointed Nominated by a Committee of the Board Elected Board members may be:
One primary assumption of much of the recent literature on boards is that boards should be diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, and social class. Inclusion of people with diverse interests in organization decision-making is believed to improve the quality of services, stimulate innovation, and help the organization balance the demands of funders with the needs of the community (Parker & Betz, 1996). The term “diversity” as it pertains to organization board generally refers to member skills and experience as well as demographic characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity, physical or mental disabilities, sexual orientation, and social class (Daley, 2002).
Parker and Betz (1996) identify a number of effective methods for recruiting members of diverse groups for membership on boards: • Ask community leaders to identify prospective board members. • Extend face-to-face invitations to potential recruits. • Use established community groups as recruiting pools for participants. • Identify and recruit informal community leaders. • Hold board or planning meetings at times when prospective members can easily attend them. • Plan special events or activities that can be used to introduce the organization to new people. • Provide training for new board members so that they understand they role and duties.
Boards delegate some of their work to committees: • Committees are smaller groups that have a specific task or function. • May be regular (standing) committees or ad hoc (temporary). • May include people who are not on the board. • May be internal to the organization and be made up of staff members or a mixture of clients, staff, board members or people outside the organization.
One type of committee is a task force: • Consists of staff members or other representatives of organizations that serve the same community or target population. • A Task Force can also include community leaders and representatives of constituency groups. • They are intended to be time limited and are established to address unmet needs or urgent problems. • One advantage of this type of decision-making vehicle is that permits an organization to engage in problem-solving on one new issue without losing its ability to focus on its primary goals (Often task forces start out as informal groups and transition into formal coalitions or collaborative, partnerships in which organizations establish formal decision-making structures to lobby government for funds or legislation or engage in the joint delivery of services).
Most committees or task groups elect a chairperson, although administrators may appoint internal committee chairs. • Committee leaders are responsible for chairing meetings, helping the group to set goals and decision-making rules, resolving conflicts among members, and identifying tasks to be completed by the group. • In most cases, the chair will set the agenda and schedule meetings, although some of these responsibilities may be delegated to staff members. • The chair is also the person responsible for making sure that the agenda is followed during meetings and following up with group members to make sure their assignments have been completed. • The chair must make sure that committee members feel involved and committed. Committee members may not contribute to the group unless they feel involved in decision-making and that they have made a contribution to the group’s success.
Many committees in social service organizations also receive support from a designated staff person. Staff responsibilities can include: • Establishing a good working relationship with the chair. • Helping the chair set the agenda. • Providing information about what decisions should be made and when. • Preparing written agendas and meeting minutes. • Researching issues to be addressed by the committee. • Sending out meeting reminder notices to members. • Providing technical expertise. • Preparing reports and other written products in consultation with community members
The simplest definition of a team is a group of people who work to achieve a goal (Perlmutter, Bailey, & Netting, 2001). There are three basic types of teams: • Teams that make recommendations. • Teams that produce things or take action. • Teams that manage the organization.
Mohrman, Cohen, and Mohrman (1995) believe that workplace teams can be differentiated from sports teams or other recreational groups based on a number of factors: A team is a group of individuals who work together to produce products or deliver services for which they are mutually accountable. Team members share goals and are mutually held accountable for meeting them, they are interdependent in their accomplishment, and they affect their results through their interactions with one another. Because the team is held collectively accountable, the work of integrating with one another is included among the responsibilities of each member. (p. 40)
We use teams in social service organizations to: • To meet the needs of clients with multiple problems. • To involve professionals representing a variety of disciplines in providing care to a single patient or client. • To permit clients to be assessed from different perspectives and have an intervention plan coordinated by a group of professionals rather than addressed in a fragmented manner when they are referred elsewhere for services. • To allow for the integration of two or more service systems within one agency or among a number of agencies that serve a specific geographic area or client population. For example, a team approach may be used in circumstances in which a consortium of public and private agencies is responsible for making child welfare decisions and there have been communication problems and other difficulties in coordinating care among providers
Rules for functioning in committees, groups, and teams • Robert’s Rules may not be used. • Groups create their own rules (implicit & explicit) also called group norms • In well-functioning group members will be rewarded for following the rule or punished for not following the rules
Effective teams have the following characteristics: • A clear purpose. • Chosen tasks associated with the purpose. • Tasks are distributed fairly among members. • Rules that guide team behavior are clear; the rules are enforced. • The team has a good mixture of people with different skills. • The roles of each member are clear. • Members trust and respect one another.
Common problems with teams include: • Team members may have incompatible goals or levels of commitment. • Team members may have hidden agendas that interfere with the process. • Some members may simply not function well on teams. • The team may lack a clear direction or a sense of purpose. • Inexperience with teams may hinder the process. • The leader may not be focused on the task or not be concerned about outcomes or group functioning.
Team leaders are responsible for: • The leader must serve as a link between organization or unit managers and team members. • Often the leader is responsible for informing the members about the purpose of the team and presents a rationale for their recruitment to the team. • The leader is also responsible for scheduling meetings, finding an appropriate meeting space, and developing agendas. • The leader must also be able to assign appropriate tasks to each team member and ensure that the work is distributed equitably. • The leader must also be an advocate for the team, securing any additional resources from the management that are needed to ensure the effectiveness of the team • The team leader helps members develop trusting relationships. • The team leader reduces conflict and enforces the rules.
Both work teams and groups go through the following stages: • Stage 1.Dependency on the leader. A new group is formed. Group members express concerns about who is included on the team and the rules for team governance. • Stage 2.Counter dependency and fight. Group members start to challenge the leader for control of the group. • Stage 3. Trust and Structure. The group concentrates on resolving conflicts among members and accomplishing tasks. The effective group will engage in cooperation, negotiation, and members will openly communicate with one another. • Stage 4. Work and Productivity. Goals are achieved. • Stage 5. Termination. An assessment is made of the work accomplished by the team, and the group disbands or tasks on a new project.
