Tip #6 Develop and Maintain a Board of Directors' Policy Manual
For many boards, board meeting minutes and perhaps organizational operations policies serve as the primary documentation of board decisions expressing the values of the board. Yet, such a collection is by no means an effective or efficient user-friendly record for informing current and future board decisions. Documentation of specific board decisions may be difficult to locate. Also, situations change over time and past board decisions may not be relevant to current and future board issues. There is a better way.
A suggestion for your consideration is to develop a board of directors’ policy manual (if you don’t already have one) that reflects your board’s values and expectations about what your organization is to achieve and how your organization is to be operated. Such a policy manual can be a vibrant document that changes as your board’s thinking on key issues evolves so that your board policy manual always represents your board’s latest thinking and latest guidance for itself and for management. It thereby becomes a powerful resource and tool for board governance. A comprehensive board policy manual may include a total of about twenty to twenty-five succinct policies.
The board policy manual is to be distinguished from the staff or operational policy manual which provides much more detailed guidance. The board policy manual sets the overall board guidance framework to which the operational manual must be aligned. For example, the board policy manual may spell out board values and expectations in the human resources area, while the operational policy manual provides detailed human resources operational policies and procedures consistent with board level policy.
For boards following or considering the Policy Governance® system of board operations, template and sample policies can be found in Reinventing Your Board by John Carver and Miriam Carver (Jossey-Bass, Revised Edition, 2006), pages 233 through 268. Policy templates and samples are also available from Policy Governance® consultants who have completed the Policy Governance® AcademySM. For other boards, sample policies are available in Board Source publications such as The Handbook of Nonprofit Governance (Jossey-Bass, 2010), pages 331 through 358.
For information about the Policy Governance® system, go to www.BoardsOnCourse.com/policy-governance.