posted on June 21, 2010 18:27
By Jamie Schriner-Hooper
Organization Specialist
Michigan Main Street Center
Michigan State Housing Development Authority
Last week, I was lucky enough to attend a board training put on by the Land Trust Alliance. The training and trainer came highly recommended by Michigan Main Street Advisory Committee member, Nancy Finegood. As someone who regularly trains Selected and Master Level Michigan Main Street boards, I figured I would go to observe how other people conduct board training and see if I could add any tips to my current board training repertoire.
When arriving at the training, I noticed that most other attendees were there in groups. There were a few individuals, but the majority of the attendees consisted of both board members and staff. This was a wise idea because both board members and staff were hearing the exact same thing on what responsibilities belonged to staff versus board. This is often a point of contention and confusion, with board members believing that if they have paid staff, the staff is there to work and the board is there to make decisions and assign things to staff. The aforementioned often happens with traditional boards, but not with Main Street boards. Main Street board members are working in the trenches; making decisions and then carrying through with the action items. It’s often hard to keep everyone motivated and to keep from burning out.
However, here are a few great tips that came from the training:
1. Give each board member business cards. There’s not a huge expense involved. If a board member has cards, it makes them feel as if they are a part of the organization and ultimately responsible. Plus, when they’re out and about networking, they can hand out their board member card!
2. Create a board contract. Often, we get so excited to have a new board member, we forget to let them know exactly what we expect of them, as well as don’t want to scare them away! Wouldn’t it be better to know if they’re unable to follow-through with a board commitment before they sign up? In the contract, let them know exactly what you expect them to do, as well as what you’ll do to help them meet their requirements.
3. Have each board member provide an individual update at every meeting. This update should include what that individual did in the last month since the last meeting to help raise funds, promote and achieve program goals.
4. Alternate board members chairing the meeting. Now, this one is a bit controversial, but a great idea. Many Main Street programs struggle with board members coming to meetings unprepared. They have the best intention of reading the 20-page board packet, but simply forget or don’t have time. If you’re chairing the meeting, you must be prepared. Alternately, once you’ve been responsible for chairing a meeting, you are more likely to come to subsequent meetings better prepared than if you’ve never been responsible for chairing the meeting.
5. Call to thank previous donors and don’t ask for additional funds. We all get the calls thanking us for a donation and then asking for us to support an additionally great cause. However, have board members make calls simply thanking people for a past donation; period. Your donors will be pleasantly surprised and much more likely to consider donating to you in the future.
6. Individuals make up 75% of charitable donations, while corporations make up only 5%. How much time are your board members spending courting and wooing businesses? Many Main Streets spend significant amounts of time trying to get donations from companies, when the vast majority of charitable donations come from individuals. Your board members would be better served working with individuals who they know support their cause, versus going for the large corporations. In fact, dead people give more than companies (7% vs. 5%.) That’s not to say that businesses should not be approached, but you might want to change the amount of time you spend on each group.
This list is certainly not all-inclusive, but has a few great tips to help refresh and renew board members and their efforts. As always, we encourage board members and Michigan Main Street staff to take advantage of any applicable training, including refresher board training.
If you know of any additional tips that will improve the lives of our Michigan Main Street boards, please share! Remember, good Main Street programs practice R&D, otherwise known as Rip off & Duplicate!