Question #49 – Does Your Board Respond to Board Member Monitoring?

(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) It would have been easy to say our personalities clash and that’s why we didn’t get along with each other, but that excuse wouldn’t hold water. We chose to devote a full weekend to settling our differences. So deep seated were our problems and feelings that we asked the executive director of the state school boards association to attend and facilitate. At this meeting we vented our feelings, mistrust, and allegations of all kinds. Read More …

Question #48 – Does Your Board Monitor Board Member Performance?

(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) The objective of the monitoring process is to flag substandard performance before it becomes habitual and to provide counsel aimed at correcting it, without causing any embarrassment to erring board members. In my experience, it makes sense for the executive, or governance committee to make individual board member performance a formal agenda item at least quarterly, taking a management by exception approach. ― Doug Eadie1 Aware of the potential that individual board members may Read More …

Question #47 – Does Your Board Set Criteria for Measuring Board Member Success?

(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) ― Horry County School District1 Board member performance is, in a word, boardsmanship. The first step in improving boardsmanship is identifying and communicating criteria that will be used to monitor board member performance and determine board member success. The above policy language is found in a protocol adopted by a school board, describing its expectations for board meetings and identifying how individual board members can contribute to or detract from effective board meetings. When Read More …

Question #46 – Does Your Board Hold Its Members Accountable?

(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) “A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” ― Thomas Paine Paine offered the above advice to America’s Founding Fathers, who were debating how best to limit the power of government. Considering Paine’s advice as it applies to the board member role: If board and board member performance were evaluated and made public, many board members might be a bit more restrained in their actions. ― Read More …