From jsharkensimon at mapfornonprofits.org Mon Jun 5 10:18:13 2006 From: jsharkensimon at mapfornonprofits.org (Judy Sharken Simon) Date: Wed Jun 7 08:15:50 2006 Subject: [Map-Volunteer] May/June MAP Volunteer Newsletter Message-ID: Welcome to the May/June Edition of MAP Volunteer News! If you have trouble reading this or wish to be removed from this mailing, please email Judy Sharken Simon, MAP's Manager of Board & Volunteer Services, at jsharkensimon@mapfornonprofits.org . __________________________________________ What's In This Issue? 1) MAP Board Stars! 2) What Is Micromanagement, And What Isn't? 3) Current board opportunities 4) Map classes and workshops 5) Leadership Registry: Bringing People of Color and Nonprofit Boards Together __________________________________________ Announcing MAP Board Stars MAP's Board Recruitment Service recruits hundreds of management professionals to serve on nonprofit boards each year. This year, in honor of National Volunteer Week, MAP sought nominations from nonprofit organizations for Board Stars -- board members placed by MAP who deserve special recognition for the exemplary roles they have played on their nonprofits boards. Two exemplary board members were selected by MAP staff from among the nominations received. Congratulations to Harold Parsons, who has served on the Board of Directors for Wingspan Life Resources for nine years; and to Bobbi Rix, who has served on the Board of Directors for Teatro del Pueblo for one year. Harold Parsons is a CPA and a principal with Larson Allen. He has been active on the Wingspan Life Resources Finance Committee since joining the organization's Board nine years ago and has served as Treasurer for five years. According to Patricia Moore, of Wingspan Life Resources, Harold's leadership has produced some great results: Wingspan has started a 401K for staff, financed two tax exempt bonds to purchase 20 homes to serve persons with developmental disabilities; established a Board-designated fund for use in emergencies, expanded Wingspan to serve frail Hmong elders in an adult day center, and more! Bobbi Rix may be a newcomer to the Teatro del Pueblo Board of Directors, with one year of service, but according to Alberto Justiniano, she has been a great addition to the Board. "She has instilled energy and excitement to our Board of Directors. She has great ideas and has been very candid and is supportive of the staff. She has contributed money and time to the organization." These two individuals demonstrate the results that both long-term and short-term board members bring to nonprofit boards. Congratulations Harold and Bobbi! WHAT IS MICROMANAGEMENT, AND WHAT ISN'T? (Source: Board Caf?, 2/25/2004, CompassPoint Nonprofit Services. boardcafe-subscribe@lists.compasspoint.org . Board Cafe is an electronic newsletter exclusively for members of nonprofit boards of directors. ) >From an executive director: "The board is micromanaging! They're driving me crazy!" And from a board member of the same organization: "Every time we make even a suggestion-the executive director flies off the handle and accuses us of micromanaging! Aren't we SUPPOSED to be guiding and leading?" Wryly, we might say that "micromanagement" is whatever the board does that the executive director doesn't like. For example, let's imagine a board reviewing a budget that has $10,000 included for lighting fixtures. Some board members don't see the point for new fixtures at all, but the executive director believes the expense is important-for giving a positive sense of the organization to visitors, and for supporting staff desire for better light. AND the ED feels that office equipment purchases are staff decisions, and that interference by the board is micromanaging. Who's right? If only there was a measuring stick that would make scientific decisions. There isn't one right answer and the line falls differently in different organizations-based mostly on the board's confidence in the executive. As an executive director myself, the line that I set for our development manager (who's terrific), fluctuates. If she gives me a first draft of a grant proposal that's excellent, I tell her to run with it. But if she gives me a bad first draft, then I'll give her comments and want to see the second draft. If the second draft is bad, I'll want to see the third draft, and so forth. "Do you want to see the third drafts of EVERYTHING?" she might ask. The answer is: if I have confidence in what you're doing, I back off. But if I LOSE confidence, then I step in closer. The same is true of boards. Board members don't get much direct evidence on whether they should gain or lose confidence in the executive director. So if the board packet is sloppily put together, the budget wasn't controlled last year, or thank-you letters to donors were late, board members start to step in closer. Frequently individual board members are all over the map in terms of what kind of oversight they think is appropriate. And sometimes there's a board member who, out of sync with the rest of the board, wants to take every decision up to the board level. Remembering that while the board chair is not the individual supervisor of the executive, he or she MUST organize the board so that the executive is not beset with conflicting orders. A simple way (often useful temporarily) is for the board chair to act as a gatekeeper between the executive and board members, deciding what should come to the board and what shouldn't. But because the board as a whole DOES oversee the executive and board-staff relations, the board as a group should review the gatekeeper decisions to bring the board into alignment on the level of confidence in the executive. In short, the board as a whole "draws the line," not any one board member. In short, if, as an executive director, you think the board is micromanaging, ask yourself and the board chair what signals the board is getting to make them wonder about your ability to lead and manage the organization. Tackle the real issue-such as budget control or donor recognition-rather than argue over whether the purchase of light fixtures is a board or a staff decision. Pick your battles-picking the ones that are meaningful, not symptomatic. And don't forget to give the board direct feedback too, by saying, "I appreciate the confidence you have in me as demonstrated by your agreeing that this decision was a staff decision," or "Is this input to my eventual decision or are you saying this is a board decision?" or "Since you're questioning a decision I think is a staff decision, should we take a look at the board's overall assessment of my performance?" CURRENT BOARD OPPORTUNITIES The following organizations are currently seeking board members. For more information about these and other board opportunities, please visit the Board Vacancies Section of our website. Bosnian Women's Network Center for Grief Family Networks Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota Indonesian Performing Arts Association of Minnesota (IPAAM) Kaposia, inc Minnesota African Women's Association - MAWA Minnesota Crafts Council Phase II Life Rebuilding Together Twin Cities Shoreline Early Childhood Development Center Theatre in the Round WARM (Women's Art Registry of MN) West Bank School of Music MAP CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS For more information or to register for classes and workshops, please visit the Classes and Workshops section of our website. Board Boot Camp Offered monthly at MAP, this two-hour, interactive session covers the legal duties of board members as well as basic board roles and responsibilities. Upcoming dates include June 28th 8:30-10:30 a.m., July 26th 6-8p.m., and August 30th 8:30-10:40 a.m.; held at MAP. Board Chair Training This training is offered just a few times per year and covers topics for the new or more experienced board chair. You will learn how to maximize the relationship between the board and staff, run a meeting that nets results, learn about fundraising and much more. Upcoming dates include Wednesday, July 12th from 4:00-8:30 p.m. at MAP. Customized Training for Your Board MAP also provides customized on-site training for board and key staff members that covers fiduciary duties, roles and responsibilities, fundraising, relationships among board and staff leadership, and tips for greater board effectiveness. We also do customized training and consulting on other organizational topics. The fee, including materials, usually ranges between $400 and $600, depending on size of organization and number of participants. Contact Christine Hammes at (651) 632-7224, chammes@mapfornonprofits.org to discuss your need. Leadership Registry: Bringing People of Color and Nonprofit Boards Together Are you interested in serving on a nonprofit or government board? Giving back to the community, gaining leadership skills, networking with other leaders? If so, Leadership Registry may be perfect for you! What is Leadership Registry? The goal of Leadership Registry is to increase the number of women and people of color serving on local nonprofit and government boards so that boards reflect the diversity of the populations that they serve. We will do this by recruiting, training and placing volunteers on local boards. Why is Leadership Registry Needed? The Leadership Registry Research Report (2003) shows that, when compared to the population demographics of the Twin Cities Metro Area, people of color and women are proportionally under-represented on nonprofit and government boards in our community. Almost one-third of surveyed organizations (28%) had no board members of color and of the 5,986 board members surveyed, only 43% were women. To view the full Leadership Registry Research Report, please go to www.ywcampls.org/registry.htm . Diverse boards enable organizations to have a significant impact on the community. By reflecting the communities in which they serve, organizations with diverse boards are better able to represent and maintain accountability to the entire community, make more thoughtful and informed decisions about programming and strategic planning and broaden the base of donors and volunteers. The Leadership Registry Program Model: The YWCA is recruiting women and people of color with an interest in serving on a nonprofit or government board. Volunteers will fill out an application, send in their resume and conduct a phone interview with MAP for Nonprofits. They are then offered MAP's "Board Boot Camp" training that discusses the roles and responsibilities of being a nonprofit board member. The YWCA is also recruiting nonprofit and government boards that are interested in diversifying. Each board will be asked to select a mentor for new board members and attend a YWCA Unlearning Racism Workshop before board members will be placed. When a board has an opening, the YWCA will find candidates whose profiles match the organization's needs and contact them to find out if they are interested in learning more about the board. If the candidate is interested in the board, the YWCA will send the candidate information about the board so they can review the organization's mission statement, time requirements, strategic plan, annual budget, etc. If the candidate decides that this board looks like a good fit for them, MAP will send their resume on to the board. The board will then contact the candidate to start the interview process. To get involved or learn more about this initiative please go to www.ywcampls.org/registry.htm or call the YWCA at 612-215-4133. Enjoy the advent of summer and feel free to contact Judy Sharken Simon, Manager of Board & Volunteer Services at jsharkensimon@mapfornonprofits.org or at 651-632-7222. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mapnp.Geeks.ORG/pipermail/map-volunteer/attachments/20060605/5bad33c3/attachment.html From jsharkensimon at mapfornonprofits.org Thu Aug 24 11:14:43 2006 From: jsharkensimon at mapfornonprofits.org (Judy Sharken Simon) Date: Fri Aug 25 09:20:38 2006 Subject: [Map-Volunteer] July/August MAP Volunteer Newsletter Message-ID: Welcome to the July/August Edition of MAP Volunteer News! If you have trouble reading this or wish to be removed from this mailing, please email Judy Sharken Simon, MAP's Manager of Board & Volunteer Services, at jsharkensimon@mapfornonprofits.org . __________________________________________ What's In This Issue? 1) High Profile People on Boards = Access to Deep Pockets? 2) Customized Training for Your Board: A Great Start for the Fall 3) Current board opportunities 4) Map classes and workshops 5) Leadership Registry: Bringing People of Color and Nonprofit Boards Together __________________________________________ High Profile People on Boards = Access to Deep Pockets? (Excerpted from "Do Big Names Really Draw Big Bucks?", Herman, Robert and Renz, David, Nonprofit Quarterly, Summer 2006, Volume 13, Issue 2) Robert Herman and David Renz presented a study in progress at the 2005 conference of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA). They studied the question of whether having influential/connected-to-money individuals on your board translate into greater revenues? Herman and Renz looked at 64 human service organizations. These organizations were sorted into two groups: those that were more dependent on earned income (commercial organizations) and those that were more dependent on contributed income (donative organizations). When they examined the relative levels of prestige of their boards, they found that the commercial organizations began with fewer influential members than did the donative organizations, but both groups increased the prestige of board members at approximately the same rates. Contrary to what the researchers expected, those nonprofits with no or only small increases in board prestige had, on average, more gain in total revenue. It was clear from the study that board prestige was not instrumental in improving an organization's financial outcomes. They study questioned why the change in board prestige for donative nonprofits was unrelated to change in total revenues and why the chief executives and fundraising officers of these particular nonprofits were not successful at encouraging their somewhat more prestigious boards to contribute to raising more money even when the period during which the data were collected was one of relative prosperity and increasing GDP. The study concluded that one of the likely reasons why increasing prestige had no statistically apparent effect on total revenues is that the sample organizations reflected a fairly narrow range of prestige. The sample comprised community-based human services organizations and did not include the sort of nonprofits that often have the high-prestige boards, organizations such as major museums, symphony orchestras and other major performing arts organizations, hospitals, and universities. The researchers concluded that a strategy of pursuing increased board prestige in order to significantly increase revenues (and thus secure more financial resources for programs) may not yield the increase in giving that they seek. Herman and Renz advise that smaller and community-based nonprofits should invest their energy in seeking diverse types of board members who can provide skills and community connections and be willing to contribute in line with their resources. Many organizations using MAP's Board Recruitment Services ask MAP to find them board members with "deep pockets" or people of "influence and affluence". MAP generally advises them that they might be better served by board members with more general fundraising skills, financial savvy, business development expertise, community connections, or marketing expertise. This advice seems borne out by the Herman and Renz study. Those wishing to review the study in its entirety should contact Robert Herman at hermanr@umkc.edu. Customized Training for Your Board: A Great Start for the Fall Fall is a great time to consider customized on-site training for board and key staff members. Why now? * Re-energize the board after the summer break * Orient new (and old) board members to important board roles and responsibilities * Prime the board for their role in updating the strategic plan or approving the annual budget * Provide a governance boost by offering an educational opportunity for the board as a whole Customized on-site board training covers what you need! Topics often include fiduciary duties, roles and responsibilities, fundraising, relationships among board and staff leadership, and tips for greater board effectiveness. MAP also does customized training and consulting on other organizational topics. The fee, including materials, usually ranges between $550 and $700, depending on size of organization and number of participants. Contact Christine Hammes at (651) 632-7224, chammes@mapfornonprofits.org to discuss your need. CURRENT BOARD OPPORTUNITIES The following organizations are currently seeking board members. For more information about these and other board opportunities, please visit the Board Vacancies Section of our website. American Diabetes Association - Gala Committee & Subcommittee Chairs Bosnian Women's Network Family Networks Hope House of St. Croix Valley Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota Indonesian Performing Arts Association of Minnesota (IPAAM) The Jacob Wetterling Foundation Kaposia, inc Minnesota Crafts Council Person to Person Phase II Life Rebuilding Together Twin Cities Shoreline Early Childhood Development Center Transitional Conferencing Theatre in the Round Vail Place WARM (Women's Art Registry of MN) West Bank School of Music MAP CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS For more information or to register for classes and workshops, please visit the Classes and Workshops section of our website. Board Boot Camp Offered monthly at MAP, this two-hour, interactive session covers the legal duties of board members as well as basic board roles and responsibilities. Upcoming dates include August 30, 8:30-10:30 a.m., September 27, 8:30-10:30 a.m., and October 25, 6:00-8:00 p.m.; held at MAP. Board Chair Training This training is offered just a few times per year and covers topics for the new or more experienced board chair. You will learn how to maximize the relationship between the board and staff, run a meeting that nets results, learn about fundraising and much more. Upcoming dates include Wednesday, September 20th from 4:00-8:30 p.m. at MAP. Leadership Registry: Bringing People of Color and Nonprofit Boards Together The goal of Leadership Registry - a partnership program between the YWCA and MAP - is to increase the number of women and people of color serving on local nonprofit and government boards so that boards reflect the diversity of the populations that they serve. Diverse boards enable organizations to have a significant impact on the community. By reflecting the communities in which they serve, organizations with diverse boards are better able to represent and maintain accountability to the entire community, make more thoughtful and informed decisions about programming and strategic planning and broaden the base of donors and volunteers. The YWCA is recruiting women and people of color with an interest in serving on a nonprofit or government board as well as nonprofit and government boards that are interested in diversifying. Each board will be asked to select a mentor for new board members and attend a YWCA Unlearning Racism Workshop before board members will be placed. To get involved or learn more about this initiative please go to www.ywcampls.org/registry.htm or call the YWCA at 612-215-4133. Enjoy the close of summer and feel free to contact Judy Sharken Simon, Manager of Board & Volunteer Services at jsharkensimon@mapfornonprofits.org or at 651-632-7222. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mapnp.Geeks.ORG/pipermail/map-volunteer/attachments/20060824/9756cbcc/attachment.html