How to create a sure-fire committee

Before you settle down to form a committee, whether of volunteers only or of a mixture of staff and volunteers, ask yourself, "Is this committee really necessary?" If the answer is "yes", then ask, "How many people should be on...

Communication the key to building an effective board

Talk with all your board members, says Maeve O'Byrne, Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation, at least once a month, and outside the parameters of the board meeting. Keep your eyes and ears open. If something important is happening in their...

Volunteer board members have legal liabilities

Many people who volunteer for boards of non-profit organizations seem to place their legal liability exposure on a different plane than do members of for-profit boards. In general terms, however, volunteer directors have the same legal liabilities; the only difference...

Stop micro-managing

Too many boards are micro-managing the affairs of nonprofit organizations to the frustration and discouragement of the staff involved. Often, instead of recruiting high calibre executives well-experienced in running a substantial business, boards tend to rationalize their hands-on behaviour by...

Making committees work

You know the joke - if God had struck a committee to create the world, it may never have come to be, and certainly not in six days. The mere word, "committee" fills us with dread. I think the committee...