Board Attendance Policy (Sample)
© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
Adapted from the Field
Guide to Developing and Operating Your Nonprofit Board of Directors.
This policy is a sample that should be modified to suit the nature and needs of the corporation.
Purpose
This policy is intended to support full contribution of all board
members. All board members receive a copy of this official policy.
The policy is reviewed once a year and maintained in each member’s
Board Manual. The policy has been reviewed and authorized by the
board (see signature and date below).
Definition of a Board Attendance Problem
A board-attendance problem occurs if any of the following conditions
exist in regard to a board member's attendance to board meetings:
1. The member has two un-notified absences in a row (“un-notified”
means the member did not call ahead to a reasonable contact in
the organization before the upcoming meeting to indicate they
would be gone from the upcoming meeting).
2. The member has three notified absences in a row.
3. The member misses one third of the total number of board meetings
in a twelve-month period.
Suggested Response to a Board-Attendance Problem
If a board-attendance problem exists regarding a member, the Board
Chair will promptly contact the member to discuss the problem.
The member’s response will promptly be shared by the Chair
with the entire board at the next board meeting. In that meeting,
the board will decide what actions to take regarding the board
member’s future membership on the board. If the board decides
to terminate the board member’s membership, termination will
be conducted per this policy (or the process may specified in
the organization’s bylaws). The board will promptly initiate
a process to begin recruiting a new board member.
(For example, the termination process might include that the Board Chair will call the member with the board-attendance problem and notify him or her of the board’s decision to terminate the member’s membership per the terms of the Board Attendance Policy. The Chair will request a letter of resignation from the member to be received within the next two weeks. The Chair will also request the member to return their board manual back to the agency by dropping it off at a specified location over the next two weeks. The board will vote regarding acceptance of the member’s resignation letter in the next board meeting.)
Board Chair’s Signature Indicating Board Authorization _____________ Date _________
(Board Policy Last Revised: [insert date!!])
Return to Toolkit for Boards of Directors
For the Category of Boards of Directors:
Related Library Topics
Recommended Books
For-Profit ("Corporate") Boards of Directors
For-Profit ("Corporate") Boards of Directors
The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.
Nonprofit Boards of Directors
Field Guide to Developing, Operating and Restoring Your Nonprofit Board
- by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Provides step-by-step, highly practical guidelines to organize, operate and sustain high-quality nonprofit Boards -- and to fix a broken Board! Includes variety of Board models you can choose from, roles and responsibilities, how to get the best members, how to train and organize them, goals for standard committees, ensuring high-quality meetings, evaluating Boards, how to evaluate and/or replace the Executive Director, and much more! Includes many sample Board policies you can download! Written by the developer of the Free Management Library. Many materials in this Library's topic about Boards are adapted from this book. 30-day, money-back, guarantee!
Field
Guide to Leadership and Supervision With Nonprofit Staff
- by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Provides step-by-step, highly practical guidelines to recruit, utilize and evaluate the best staff members for your nonprofit. Includes guidelines to effectively lead yourself (as Board member or staff member), other individuals, groups and organizations. Includes guidelines to avoid burnout -- a very common problem among nonprofit staff. Written by the developer of the Free Management Library. Many materials in this Library's topic about leadership and staffing are adapted from this book. 30-day, money-back, guarantee!
Field
Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development With Nonprofits
- by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Provides complete, step-by-step guidelines to identify complex issues in nonprofit organizations and successfully resolve each of them. This book is also helpful to organizations that are doing fine now, but want to evolve to the next level of performance. This is one of the truly comprehensive, yet practical, books about this complex subject! Includes online forms that can be downloaded. Written by the developer of the Free Management Library. Many materials in this Library's topic about guiding change are adapted from this comprehensive book. 30-day, money-back, guarantee!
Field
Guide to Nonprofit Strategic Planning and Facilitation
- by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Step-by-step guidelines to customize and facilitate planners to implement the best strategic planning process to suit the particular nature and needs of their nonprofit. This is one of the few books, if any, that explains how to actually facilitate planning. Includes many online forms that can be downloaded and used by planners. Written by the developer of the Free Management Library. Many materials in this Library's topic about strategic planning are adapted from this book. 30-day, money-back, guarantee!
