BOARD SELF-ASSESSMENT SURVEY
Copyright© 2010 The Forbes Group. All rights reserved.
A good board of directors should occasionally stand back from their usual preoccupation and reflect on how the board is meeting its responsibilities. This process should look at how its membership composition, member selection process, structure and overall performance can be strengthened.
(BoardSource – formerly the National Center for Nonprofit Boards)
Introduction
Associations are beset by new pressures. Gone are the days when members joined out of a sense of duty and loyalty to the association and the business or profession it represents. Today, members want continuous demonstrations of value. Increasingly they see dues as a tax levied to support a panoply of products and services that they feel they may not need or want.
Gone, too, are the days of eager volunteerism when crowds of budding leaders stepped forward to serve and make their way up the long and tortuous climb to national office, perhaps the presidency. One 32,000-member professional association recently reviewed responses to its annual call for national leadership volunteers. In a seven-year period, they plummeted from 1,500 to 150, a 90 percent drop.
Associations often see themselves as the sole owners and providers of information about their constituency. Today, competitors, often for-profit businesses, are challenging with better, faster, cheaper forms of information delivery. For example, multiple listing services, once an exclusive of the Realtor® organizations, now are available from other sources on the Internet.
These new uncertainties make it imperative that association boards clearly understand their responsibilities, focus on the future and make sure that the mechanisms of governance do not inhibit market responsiveness.
This Survey
The association’s leadership has decided to investigate how the board of directors can improve its governing skills. The first step is to complete this self-assessment survey. It covers the principal areas of board responsibility and allows you to rate the performance of the association’s board against recognized best practices for board operations. Your responses are confidential. They will be aggregated with others to give a picture of how well the board views its performance.
Please complete and mail this survey by (date) in the enclosed preaddressed, prepaid envelope to (organization and address). If you have questions, contact (assn, title, phone, email).
STRATEGIC THINKING AND PLANNING
Best Practice: Only the leaders of the association can create its future. One of the board’s principal functions is to design that future by analyzing the effect of external forces (the economy, politics, demographics, technology and the environment) on members and assessing the ability of the association to address them. Then leaders must describe a vision (where the association should go), define a mission (what businesses the association should be in) and set goals and objectives to accomplish them. These steps are called strategic thinking and planning. The board should examine the association’s planning assumptions, vision, mission and plan annually and adjust them to meet changing conditions.
To what extent do you agree Strongly Strongly No
with the following statements Agree Disagree Opinion
(check the appropriate numbered box)
1. The board understands the effects
of external forces on (assn’s) members 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
2. The board has created a clear vision
and mission for (assn) 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
3. The board’s policy decisions and (assn’s)
programs adhere to the mission 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
4. (Assn) has a strategic plan that drives
the association’s work 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
5. The board bases its strategic planning
on member input and feedback 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
6. The board periodically reviews and
adjusts the strategic plan 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
7. The board uses accomplishment of
the strategic plan as the basis for
determining (assn’s) success 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
How could the board improve strategic thinking and planning?______
______
______
FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITIES
Best Practice: Board members have three legal responsibilities or "duties" -- duty of care, duty of loyalty and duty of obedience. Duty of care requires directors to do what would be expected of any prudent person in the same position -- read relevant documents, prepare carefully for board meetings, pay attention to what is going on, and ask questions to clarify actions being taken. Duty of loyalty requires board members to give undivided allegiance to the organization without regard to personal interest, business interest, or the interest of any other region or organization. Duty of obedience requires directors to act within the scope of legal authority, including the organization's articles of incorporation, bylaws and mission.
To what extent do you agree Strongly Strongly No
with the following statements Agree Disagree Opinion (check the appropriate numbered box)
1. Board members are knowledgeable about
(assn’s) programs and services 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
2. The board is willing to adopt, modify
or eliminate programs to meet new needs 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
3. The (assn’s) budget allocates resources
according to strategic plan priorities 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
4. The board studies and understands
the budget and financial reports
before approval 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
5. The board requests and reviews an
annual independent financial audit 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
6. Board members act for the good of the
association as a whole 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
7. The board is unified and its members
support its final decisions and actions 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
How could the board improve its fiduciary performance?______
______
______
BOARD SELECTION AND ORIENTATION
Best Practice: Many associations have large boards whose members are chosen because they represent specialties or geographic divisions. Instead, boards should be small enough to conduct their work without delegating it to other bodies, such as committees, and board members should be selected because they are knowledgeable strategic thinkers about the association’s business or profession. There should be a system of staggered terms to allow for both institutional memory and new thinking. New board members should get a thorough orientation about the association and their leadership duties before they begin their service.
To what extent do you agree Strongly Strongly No
with the following statements Agree Disagree Opinion
(check the appropriate numbered box)
1. There is a sufficient range of expertise
and experience on the board to make it
an effective governing body 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
2. The board is the right size to carry out
its work effectively and efficiently 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
3. There is a formal and effective process
for identifying new board members 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
4. New board members receive a thorough
and formal orientation about (assn)
and their duties and responsibilities 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
5. New board members receive copies of
important (assn) documents (bylaws,
strategic plan, work plan, budget,
audited financial statement, etc.) 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
How could the board selection and orientation process be improved?______
______
______
______
BOARD OPERATION
Best Practice: With volunteers’ time so mortgaged, it is important that a board use its limited meeting time to do the right kind of work efficiently. The board should concentrate more on strategic thinking and planning and policy development than administrative details. Board members should be familiar with the bylaws, which determine how the association operates. They should receive and review the agenda and supporting documents in advance of the meeting. If there are committees that report to the board, their reports should be in writing rather than verbal. A consent agenda can be used for approval of routine matters such as board and committee minutes rather than discussing and approving each individually.
To what extent do you agree Strongly Strongly No
with the following statements Agree Disagree Opinion
(check the appropriate numbered box)
1. Board members are familiar
with the (assn) bylaws 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
2. The board focuses more on strategic
than administrative matters 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
3. Board members get clear agendas and
supporting materials sufficiently in
advance of board meetings 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
4. Board meetings are well organized,
productive and make good use of
directors' time 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
5. Board policies and actions are recorded
and provided in writing to board members 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
6. The board periodically evaluates its
performance 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
How could the board's operation be improved?______
______
______
______
BOARD/STAFF RELATIONSHIP
Best Practice: The board's only employee is the chief staff executive. All other association employees report to the executive. The chief staff executive is responsible to the board as a whole, not to individual members, such as the president or chairman. The board should provide a written job description for the executive. The board should establish a clear basis on which executive performance will be judged. The best basis is accomplishment of the association's strategic plan. Once the association's work plan has been negotiated between the board and the executive, the board should be a resource to the staff in implementing it but should not micromanage. In order to make this partnership work well, the quality of the working relationship between the executive and board should be high.
To what extent do you agree Strongly Strongly No
with the following statements Agree Disagree Opinion
(check the appropriate numbered box)
1. The roles of the (assn) board and staff
are clearly defined and understood 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
2. The board does not micromanage
the executive director and staff 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
3. The relationship between the board and
the executive director is one of mutual
respect and trust 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
4. The board gives the executive director
enough responsibility and authority to
effectively manage the association 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
5. Criteria for judging the executive
director's performance are clearly
understood by the board and
the executive 1r 2r 3r 4r 5r r
How could the board/staff relationship be improved?______
______
______