smARTstart

Recruitment

When recruiting for new board members, BoardSource suggests personal characteristics to consider:

• Ability to listen, analyze, think clearly and creatively, work well with people individually and in a group
• Willingness to prepare for and attend board and committee meetings, ask questions, take responsibility and follow through on a given assignment, contribute personal and financial resources in a generous way according to circumstances, open doors in the community, evaluate oneself
• Commitment to develop specific skills if you do not already possess them, such as cultivating and soliciting donors, cultivating and recruiting board members and other volunteers, reading and understanding financial statements, and learning more about the major programs, services and activities of the organization
• Honesty, sensitivity to and tolerance of differing views, a friendly, responsive, and patient approach, community-building skills, personal integrity, a developed sense of values, concern for your nonprofit's development, a sense of humor

Conducting a board orientation for new board members is an excellent way to jump start their board service and ensure that they have a clear understanding of the organization and feel a part of it. It is a key step in building a team of individuals working together toward a shared goal.

An orientation should involve all new board members, key board and staff leadership. Board members, as well as staff, need to take a role in sharing information about the organization’s programming, history, organizational structure, finances, board responsibilities and expectations, board rules and operations, and strategic directions with new members. Members need to get acquainted with the basic issues that face the organization, the board culture and style. In addition to being informational, the orientation needs to include time for members to get to know each other personally.

A binder of key organizational documents is helpful to complement the orientation and provides a good reference tool for new members. Suggested contents for the binder:

• Bylaws
• Board minutes for the previous year
• Current year budget
• Previous year financial statement/audit
• Current board list with affiliations and contact information
• Current staff list with contact information
• Organization chart
• Meeting dates for the year
• Committee descriptions and membership list
• Strategic and operational plans
• Current program information
• Annual report
• Policies – financial, personnel, investment, conflict of interest, etc.

Creating a mentoring or buddy system – pairing a new director with a veteran director – can be helpful in making the new member feel welcome and integrated into the team. Some organizations require new members to serve on particular committees in their initial year to gain familiarity with the organization.

While you continue to provide opportunities for new members to “come up to speed”, don’t neglect the development of your longer tenured members. Provide opportunities for all members to learn; some organizations have integrated into board meetings presentations or discussions on pertinent issues to the organization - artistic or operational – or its particular artistic field. Others encourage board member participation in workshop and training sessions or attendance at local, state or national conferences.

Contact the Arts & Business Council of Chicago to learn more about our Board Development Consulting program, offering board training, coaching and collective capacity-buidling.

1. Blue Avocado: Nominating Policies and Procedures
2. Center for Nonprofit Excellence: Developing the Board of Directors
3. Nancy Roche, The Art of Governance: Boards in the Performing Arts