Orienting New Members to Boards of Directors
Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Copyright 1997-2008.
Adapted from the Field
Guide to Developing and Operating Your Nonprofit Board of Directors.
Board orientation is intended to prepare
new board members for their board role in the organization. Orientation
is also extremely useful for all members to ensure they are operating
from the same "script." Whether done only with new members
or with the entire board, orientation is a strong team-building
activity that should be conducted once a year, either before a
regular board meeting or during the retreat -- particularly after
new board members have been recruited.
1. The board chair and the chief executive typically facilitate
the orientation session.
2. Ensure introductions and consider using name tags.
3. Review several topics, including:
- the Board Manual (see "Board Manual Index")
- mission, vision and values of the organization
- some the organization's history
- roles and responsibilities of the board and the staff
- administrative calendar which schedules major activities of
the board
- organizational chart, including the list of current and planned
committees
- about how the board conducts meetings, including relevant actions
from the
Roberts' Rules of Order
4. Ensure adequate time for questions and answers.
5. Consider assigning a "buddy," or current board member
to help orient a new board member.
6. Involve new members as soon as possible in relevant committees
by asking new members to consider membership on a current or new
committees.
Return to Recruiting and Orienting
New Board Members
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!
