So, here comes your annual retreat, your only extended meeting of the year.  You want to do something big, meaningful, the right thing and not have to wait 12 months if you get it wrong.  Which comes first:  setting goals and recruiting new members to help attain those goals or recruiting new members who will then develop goals that they will help to make happen? 

Let me see if I heard your concern correctly.  You are wondering about the following.  Is it a waste of time to recruit using existing goals to guide recruitment only to have new members cause goals to be changed?  Will changing the goals alienate and devalue the contributions of veteran trustees? Conversely, do we need to have a new or improved team to do planning or can we just forge ahead setting the best goals we can and include guidance for recruiting as part of the goal and strategy setting exercise?

My answer is:  there is no right answer and there is never a bad time to do something good, whether setting goals, determining recruiting targets or both.  Just keep making the best incremental improvements that you can with the limited time that is available for this work.  Whichever end that you start with, however, please insure that recruiting priorities and strategic goals are connected.  Don't feel bad if the board changes its mind, even in a few months, about anything truly important.  Changing course is a natural part of governance.  If a boat traveling on a river never changed course when its captain had new information, then that boat might run off a waterfall, or go aground or hit another boat or .....and don’t we want to save the boat, its crew and its carrying and traveling capacity?

The demise of previously well-functioning organizations can be exacerbated by fleeing board members.  While it is OK to preserve their own well-being, it is not OK to do that when trustees have not done all that they could have reasonably done in their role as mission stewards for the community.  I continue to observe that many trustees wait too long to act and engage in excessive debilitating hand wringing before throwing up their hands and seeking the exits.  But what really makes a difference rarely happens:  trying something different to obtain a different result.

When the going gets tough, great boards get going.  THIS is the time when trustees may figure out what governance is really about and why they are there:  to insure that community value of continued quality operations are maintained and doing whatever it takes (ethically and legally, of course) to maintain this continuity.  Bailing out is easy but that is not acceptable behavior according to “the oath,” so to speak, that trustees took when they signed on for their term of office.  Required action may include narrowing focus, arranging strategic alliances, replacing staff members, replacing themselves, or, gulp, even doing the ambassador and fund raising work that they should have been doing all along!!!

I want to salute board members who don't cut and run in difficult times.  Those who stay to insure continuity when it benefits the community, sharing painful decisions and actions with committed staff leaders:  these trustees are the real heroes of the nonprofit world.  After saving  services for the sake of the community, it is OK to step away and move on, but only after care is taken to insure that trustees appropriate to govern in the new phase of organizational life have been recruited and installed. 

May 2009 be truly fine for all those organizations for which we care!!!

I believe that groups of experts outside of the board of trustees/directors can have great value for an organization.  However, these other groups require similar treatment to policy making boards to be effective:  thoughtful recruiting, adequate staff support, and well defined purpose.

The most intriguing tendency, shared with commercial and government entities, is that of picking name over capability.  That is, going for star power rather than work effort in selecting members.  Name recognition lends prestige and many organizations use famous names as primary reasons to attract community support in outreach messaging. 

The ability of name recognition to jolt a reader into a pause before deletion or round-filing of a message can't be denied but I would ask name droppers three questions.  1)  Does your organization's performance in pursuit of its mission rise to the level of expectation associated with that big name?  2)  If asked, would the named celebrity speak in an informed and supportive way about your organization's work?  3)  Are there other people serving on the affiliated advisory body who actually bring the organization useful advice?

The U.S. Thanksgiving holiday gives many of us the prompt to count our blessings for what is working in our board lives.  In this forum, I usually rant or preach about some ideal way for board members and their staff supporters to behave.  As an advance holiday present, I would like to offer my readers a couple of reflective questions that help to accentuate the positive aspects of their boards, looking forward to the arbitrary renewal point of the new calendar year.

1)  What are the tangible significant accomplishments your board has made this past year?  What has been the positive impact on the organization, staff members and the community served by the organization?  2)  What has the board become better at doing?  3)  How has the relationship between board and staff improved?   4)  What stakeholders are now better connected to the organization because of board efforts than a year ago?  5)  How has the board itself been strengthened - new members, new leaders, structures, procedures, etc. than a year ago?

Please do yourself a favor.  After counting these blessings, be thankful, not just within your soul but outwardly with other board members.  Be glad that you ARE moving forward, that you have a fantastic foundation to build upon for further growth in 2009.  Take a deep breath, feel the warmth of camaraderie in accomplishment, bask in the glow of each other's smiles of satisfaction.  Hug each other.  You are all alive and mostly well and so is the mission that you dutifully care for that means so much to the community.  The world is indeed a better place because of what you do.