Inviting nonprofit staff to attend board meetings saves time, worry

Published in the May 25, 2007 edition of Columbus Business First

At a workshop I was asked whether staff should be allowed to attend a nonprofit agency’s board meetings.  My answer was a yes.  

A well-run board meeting with a focused purpose is a very time-efficient way for staff to know the priorities, challenges, and strategies of an organization. 

Purposeful board meetings are an important forum for discussions of emerging problems.  Staffers have staked their jobs and livelihoods on the success of the organization. 

One can make a good argument that they deserve to know what’s going on more than the board does. 

Rather than make staff rely on rumor and hallway gossip, let them into the board room to see how issues are confronted, resources allocated, priorities set, and the organization’s future charted. 

If you worry that hearing discussions of problems will discourage the staff, you can be sure the rumor mill will go well beyond what the facts warrant. 

Providing minutes of a board meeting does not substitute for attendance at the meeting.  Minutes are usually dry and concise, rarely conveying tone and emphasis. 

On the other hand, board briefing materials are often the best and most accessible written summaries of the organization’s priorities and challenges. 

Consider giving staff access to all but the most sensitive documents. 

Seeing is believing

You should not assume staff knows as much about the organization’s mission, priorities, and financial health as the board does. 

It is also quite possible a positive, attainable, strategic perspective is hard for staff to embrace when their daily experiences confront them with the warts of the organization -- limitless demands for service, inadequate resources, and unfulfilled plans to raise quality. 

They want to believe they are getting as much support as possible; they want to believe the board is as committed as they are. 

Let them see that commitment firsthand. 

It is also important to acknowledge that allowing the board to be a mysterious body of strangers induces some staff to vest a magical power in the board that does not exist.  This can create unrealistic staff expectations that, if the board were to know about a problem, it has the ability to set all things right. 

Boards can only inspire, support, and oversee; staff must not abdicate its responsibility to communicate, manage, and solve problems. 

Seeing the board in action restores the board to its proper status as concerned and skilled volunteers, but mere human beings. 

A few important guidelines

If staffers don’t already attend board meetings, establish a few guidelines so expectations are realistic.  Consider:

• This is a board meeting, not a staff meeting.  Staff shouldn’t outnumber board members.  The board table is for board members. 

Staff should sit on the perimeter unless they are participants or the table can comfortably accommodate everyone. 

• Staff attendance is a privilege, not a right.  

If it is a large staff, consider routinely inviting top officers and make an invitation a special reward offered to junior staff.  Don’t underestimate how powerful an incentive this can be for your most motivated on staff. 

• Staff are invited as observers, not as participants unless they are specifically called upon or asked to make a presentation. 

This is a time for board deliberation that staffers need to respect. 

At the same time, as firsthand observers of board deliberations, the staff who attend can be effective communicators to other staff, especially if done through a post-meeting staff briefing session.

• Boards automatically are burdened with a presumption of secrecy. 

The practice of inviting staff for specific portions of a meeting, or shuffling them in and out as executive sessions are repeatedly called, is counterproductive. 

Invitations should be extended for the entire meeting and executive sessions need to be handled carefully so they don’t become a problem. 

A best practice for handling executive sessions is to have one at every board meeting and to make it a routine and appropriate way to end each meeting. 

The board chair should also make it a practice to brief the executive director on each executive session.  This approach prevents executive sessions from becoming unintended messages of crisis, distrust, or lack of confidence in the staff. 

Board meetings are an important forum for board members and for staff.  Treat them as an opportunity to foster a shared understanding of your strategy and priorities as well as a sense of partnership between the staff and the board. 

Allen J. Proctor was chief financial officer of Harvard University and is the author of “Linking Mission to Money, Finance for Nonprofit Board Members.”  www.proctorconsulting.org

Copyright 2007. Reprinted with permission, Business First of Columbus Inc.