I am a firm believer in volunteerism and stepping forward to get the job done. Without volunteerism, society would be at a standstill.
Just be sure you have the answers to the important questions posed in this book, and then, if you are satisfied that the decision is right for you, say Yes! — with enthusiasm, commitment, and contentment.
It’s flattering to be asked, and it can be loads of fun, and certainly very rewarding in a variety of ways, but before you say yes to joining a board of directors, there are many things you must consider, and much you should know.
Is this board right for you? Will volunteering on this board challenge you and enable you to grow? Will it indulge your passions? Will it be easy for you to keep your personal loyalties in check? Is there any possible conflict of interest for you to consider? These are all questions we will discuss in this chapter.
Only You Can Decide
Knowing when to say yes to an invitation to join a board is crucial. You need to make sure that you are joining the board that is right for you. There are many types of non-profit boards and they will appeal to different individuals with specific talents, interests, and needs.
Does your interest lie in education? Or perhaps sports, the arts, healthcare, social services, or Native issues? There are boards in all of these sectors that will incorporate these preferences.
“It’s really important to find a board that best feeds your passion,” says Gregg Hanson, a philanthropist and former CEO of Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company who spends a good chunk of his time serving on various boards in both the corporate and non-profit sectors. Hanson currently serves on three major corporate boards in Manitoba, and is also chair of the United Way’s 2010 fundraising campaign and former chair of the Winnipeg Foundation. He offers some valuable advice to prospective directors. “What really excites you?” asks Hanson. “If you do what your passion is, and spend just one hour a week volunteering in that field, collectively, we could really change the world.” Hanson goes on to say that if you’re not passionate about an issue, don’t bother agreeing to serve a board that predominantly deals with it. It will be a waste of your time, create unnecessary frustrations for you, and not be much fun.
The experiences of seasoned board members have proven that the people who become the most fulfilled by board activities are those who have passion for the work they are involved in, and can ignite that passion in others. This enthusiasm becomes infectious and ultimately is a tremendous benefit to any organization. Choosing the right board is a very personal decision. Don’t let the interests or concerns of others influence you.
“Even though my daughter is an Olympian, I am not passionate about sports. So any board with a focus on sports would not work for me,” says Hanson. “And even though I love animals, I am much more concerned about social services for people. So sitting on the board of the Humane Society (SPCA) would be far better suited to someone else who is more passionate about animals.”
It’s important to choose a board that is compatible with your interests. It is also important to choose one that is in line with your abilities.
Nathalie Kleinschmit, a director with Global’Ease training and consulting services for non-governmental organizations, has worked with many boards: “It’s best not to ask people to do something as a volunteer that resembles their job because then it’s too much like work,” she says. “But yet, you must capitalize on their strengths and not assign them a task that is foreign to their nature. You want to help them grow.”
This is sound advice. It’s quite a balancing act to ensure that the volunteer task you are choosing or being asked to accept is challenging, but not beyond the reach of your abilities. Thankfully there are a myriad of boards for us to choose from. The key is to find the right home for your passion, skills, and enthusiasm. With the right fit, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish.
All for One and One for All
It’s a catchy phrase, and it really applies here. When you agree to sit on a board, you are acting as a representative of that organization, collective, or association. This means that the interests, needs, and goals of that umbrella organization must come before your own as well as those of the smaller organization or association that may have sponsored your candidacy as a director on a larger board.
It’s important to understand the transformation of a passionate individual, with unique needs and perhaps a limited scope of vision, to one who is an unbiased, ethical, and visionary director. This metamorphosis is an important and necessary component of the successful operations of any board.
I spent six years, from 2003 to 2009, serving as a director with Access Copyright, The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, established in 1988 as a collective of publishers and creators of intellectual property and visual arts. That was an interesting board to work on due to the fact that the board had eighteen members, each of whom had his or her own background and bias to contend with. This rather unique and complex board was comprised of representatives of large publishers, small publishers, trade-book publishers, educational publishers of textbooks and learned journals, as well as freelance writers, book authors, poets, playwrights, photographers, visual artists, and many others from across Canada.
Each of these members associations had the right and opportunity to put forward one (or more) of their members’ names for election. Each had their own distinct perspective and a voice of equal value at the table. But you can imagine that the needs and opinions of a large multi-national publisher would be significantly different — and in many instances, diabolically opposed — from that of an independent freelance writer or photographer. That’s where the biggest challenge comes in: respecting — and when necessary or appropriate, accepting — different points of view from around the table.
Although you may disagree with the opinions of another director, or dislike the way they do business or represent themselves in their industry (or community) in which they are operating, you must put personal or ideological differences aside and remember that your role as an unbiased and ethical director comes before all else when you are sitting at the board table.
You must also keep in mind that each member of the board had been nominated by his or her member association and was then formally elected by the members of the collective as a whole to sit on the board. It is at that point that each elected director must check his or her unique hat at the door, and once inside, don — with unfaltering commitment — the hat of the collective they are now representing publicly and within the organization.
That is not always an easy task. We are all human, and on occasion it becomes difficult (if not impossible) for each of us to remember that, first and fore most, we are functioning as directors of the board of the mother organization and not as biased special-interest individuals (be it writers, publishers, painters, or whatever walk of life the director may be coming from).
Which brings to mind another delicate point: declaring a conflict of interest. When you sit on a board, from time to time an issue may come to the table about which you have privileged knowledge due to family or business ties or from being an “insider” to the issue for any reason.
If your vote on an issue that is before the board will financially benefit you, your family, or your business, you must excuse yourself from the room during any discussion on the matter and be excluded from the vote. You may be consulted for background information on the issue, but you should not be a party to the decision-making discussion surrounding a motion of the board. If a potential conflict of