15 RECOMMENDED PRACTICES: DO…
- Clarify the roles and responsibilities of the board and your CEO/Director.
- Have your CEO/Director on the board.
- Limit the number of staff sitting on the board.
- Have board members with a range of backgrounds, skills and experiences.
- Encourage board members to donate money to the NPO.
- Use email, websites and other technology to give board members all the information they need about current developments in the NPO.
- Encourage board members to advocate on behalf of the NPO.
- Develop and publicise the procedure for dealing with mismanagement by the CEO/Director.
- Take steps to ensure board members attend meetings so that there is always a quorum.
- Make the CEO/Director or other staff board members leave a meeting when decisions are made about them personally.
- Allow the CEO/Director to record an objection to any board decision in the minutes.
- Ensure that the CEO/Director and other staff respect a board decision even when they disagree with it.
- Deal openly and decisively with any conflicts of interest on the board or other issues that need to be handled by the board.
- Be aware of and respond to changes and developments in the law and external environment that affect the work of the NPO and the board.
- Constantly review your NPO’s vision, mission, strategies and policies when circumstances demand this.
5 RECOMMENDED PRACTICES: DO NOT…
- Have an ex-CEO/Director sitting on the board.
- Allow a CEO/Director or other staff member sitting on the board to be an executive member of the board (chair, vice-chair, treasurer or secretary).
- Make the board meet too often or take up too much board members’ time outside of meetings.
- As a board, get involved in the operations of the organisation or give instructions to staff.
- As a board member, say or do anything that will reflect badly on the aims, values and ethics of the NPO.