The Board
Steps for Effective Board Operations
Step 1. Choosing a Board Model
Beyond the minimum legal requirements, the board must decide how involved it wishes to be in the operations of the ELCC program.
Four possible board models exist:
- Policy Board
- Policy Governance Board
- Working or Administrative Board
- Collective
The answers to the following questions will determine which kind of board model to adopt. For example:
- Which decisions does the board wish to make, and which does it wish to delegate?
- How involved does the board want to be in program operations?
- Will the staff report to a senior staff/director or will it report to the board?
Resources
The United Way Board Development Guide explores these options in more detail and provides a Models Comparison Chart Matrix.
The Roles, Responsibilities and Functions of a Board - A Board Development Guide
This guide was prepared by the Manitoba Department of Family Services and Housing for the boards and staff of provincially funded social service agencies. The guide is not intended to be a detailed procedures manual, but to provide awareness of the basic responsibilities and functions expected of a governing board and its members.
Step 2: Recruit and Select New Board Members
Create an inventory of the skills, qualities and knowledge that the board will need in order to address the challenges facing the ELCC program in the next few years. The board inventory is a way of translating the organization's strategic goals and priorities into a description of the kinds of people who are needed for the board.
Step 3: Board Job Descriptions
Once you have set out the responsibilities of the Board, then job descriptions should be made up for each of them - every board member should have one.
- See Sample: Developing job descriptions for board members
Step 4: Election of Board members
The board will represent the membership of the program. Non-profit boards must elect their boards at an Annual General Meeting.
- Sample membership form
- Sample Nominating policies and procedures
Step 5: Orientation
After you have recruited excellent board members, you want to make sure that you keep them! So, it's critical to give new members a very good orientation about how the board works, what board members' responsibilities are, how this affects the program, etc. A Board manual is an excellent way of providing the basic information to new board members.
A board manual should include:
- Program's history, philosophy, vision, goals and objectives
- Program's by-laws
- Program's goals and implementation strategy
- List of working committees (if any) and their goals and plans
- Policies and procedures: for staff; for program; for parents
- Organizational Chart
- Contact lists:
- board member names, positions, phone numbers, e-mails
- staff names and positions
- community leaders and politicians
- Job description for board members
- Program Director's job description
- Information on meeting procedures
- Recent board meeting minutes
- Schedule of allowable expenses, e.g. child care, mileage, bus fare, etc.
- Financial statements: current budget, audited financial statements, recent monthly financial reports
- Provincial child care legislation and regulations
- Any other useful background materials
The orientation should also include a profile of the board members including their background, skills and special interests. There should be a discussion of board/staff relations, lines of communication and reporting. Time commitments required for the board should be honestly discussed, as well as parent-board relations.
Make sure that all board members are introduced to all staff and know the facility.
Board members should also be encouraged to attend the programs regularly, attend staff and committee meetings to familiarize themselves with the child care programs.
Resources
The Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care provides a sample Board of Directors' Handbook as a supplement to their Child Care Management Guide II. The full guide is available from the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, 489 College Street, Suite 206, Toronto, Ontario M6G 1A5 Tel: 416-538-0628; Fax: 416-538-6737; Toll-free: 1-800-594-7514. General enquiries by e-mail: info@childcareontario.org
Step 6: Ongoing Training and Support
Training and development opportunities are important to the success of a board. Other organizations have found that it helps to set up a "buddy system" for new board members with a member who has been on the board for some time. Board members also need regular feedback about their participation and it may be necessary to reconfirm roles and responsibilities from time to time. Make sure that board members know who they can approach for information when they have questions.
Other ideas include: a planned workshop for the board to attend with a guest speaker or presentation by one of the board members or participation by individual board members in seminars and conferences held by other organizations
Step 7: Evaluation
Just as staff need to evaluate their work and programs need to be evaluated, so does the Board.
Regular evaluation will:
- continuously improve the organization's work
- ensure programs and services meet the expectations and objectives set for them, and allow changes to be made if needed
- be accountable to the community and the people served by the organization
- meet the requirements of funders
- provide feedback to the staff and volunteers doing the work of the organizations
Board evaluation can happen at several levels.
- annually to determine the board's effectiveness throughout the year
- at the end of each board meeting
- through self evaluation annually
Board committees should also be evaluated annually.
For helpful recommendations on how to implement an effective evaluation, visit the Six Steps of The Evaluation Process.