Last year I was welcomed by the organization to facilitate the session I expected when I withdrew once a year. Specifically, the Managing Director asked the Board to understand the importance of attendance, serve as ambassador for the organization, and help to keep promises.
At the time of withdrawal from the Board, I asked each board of directors to write down the best guesses about the average number of attendees and guessed the attendance rate from 80% to 90%. Delegated attendees were surprised that the average attendance rate of each attendee was actually only 66%. I asked the members to estimate the proportion of members who attended less than 51% of the conference and 37.5% were surprised that they missed the meeting more than six last year.
People who are absent from many meetings are sometimes called "chronically absent officials"
If 37.5% of the "chronically absent officers" are deleted from the chart, the remaining members will attend an average of 85% attendees. 85% average attendees are highly respected, this is indeed "awakening" the board and are keenly interested in improving the attendance of chronically absentee (or I will help them to leave).
Instead of continuing a conversation about the importance of attending and participating in the Board of Directors, some of the Board members have attended a 75% attendance rate to consider reasonable and achievable expectations for attending the Board of Directors Some people like it, others support 85%. There was also a proposal to schedule the Board at a more convenient time, to provide virtual attendance options and to consider whether absences should be exempted for reasons on the workplace.
One of the new directors who sat quietly through most of the discussion, "This is ridiculous, is it hurting? They are not here, it will not keep the rest of us active. It is necessary for someone to be an immutable official by counting the participants in the meeting and those not participating and chasing people who do not appear. It is paid for it, it should not be treated like a job. "
There was only a few minutes left on the agenda before the next facilitator was scheduled, so a simple conversation about the importance of attendance was held. To put it briefly, I realized that many people working on the board understand the importance of attendance and left the room on that day. But the premise is probably not shared by everyone.
For this reason it is definitely worthwhile to outline why attendance is important to the effectiveness of the organization. In fact, there are at least six reasons.
# 1: Norm to average value
If you really mix hot water cup and really cold water cup into the bowl, you will have 2 warm water. Human behavior works on the same principle. People look around the room, see what colleagues are doing and see what they are doing and model their behavior accordingly. People working on bulletin boards with high attendance rates and participation rates are more likely to attend meetings as they desire an average of more than average. However, those working at boards with low attendance rates do not need to appear very frequently to become average.
# 2: The effect of a cocktail party
At one time I interviewed a respected nonprofit officer who helped me to understand the effect of a cocktail party. A group of four cocktail party guests is supposed to be chatting when someone listens and participates in the conversation. A meaningful conversation fully engaged in the new group members and conversations is just confusing and confusing the new guest. People who are chronically lacking will have a similar effect on the board. If the Board of Directors reviewed preliminary discussions and decisions and attendees from the occasional board of directors can deliberately vote on the issue, other members will take an overview of deliberations in the last few months There must be. If time is not available to speed up the directors rarely seen in the Board of Directors, the Board will be harmed by members who voted without understanding the problem.
# 3: Confidence monitoring
Board members have legal obligations to conduct reliable supervision and this obligation is never met by absentee. Attendance by directors alone is insufficient to fulfill trust responsibility, but it is impossible to properly supervise without participating in the board of directors. State lawyers have the opportunity to conduct high profile surveys of board members who are unable to provide confidence monitoring, including California, Oklahoma, Vermont, and almost all other states.
# 4: Bad press
State law lawyer general survey with violation of board trust level trust liability is always bad publicity. When reports are reported, most people believe that the Board is "sleeping at the wheel" or colliding with the management team and doing the wrong things.
# 5: Sense of lost team
As with all entities, the board performs as best as a team. They learn about each other's strengths and weaknesses, know when to cherish them, and know when a person is not a functional team member. However, the team is not made up of people who "can appear when they can." Participating in the team is to prepare by attending practice (committee meeting) and game (board meeting). What is less than anything means that the members can not believe each other and end the work.
# 6: Lost income
Several fundamental applications have begun asking for the attendance of the board and this question will generally be called for as a proportion of those who are making personal gifts. These non-profit organizations with chronic desires have a much lower chance of getting funding.
Next step
If you are interested in evaluating your own board's attendance status, the following questions are a good starting point:
- What is the average director? (Exact percentage of the first or second decimal place, not an estimate)?
- Do you have a good spreadsheet to track board attendance? Is it shared with the Executive or Governance Committee? Is it shared with the whole board?
- Are you writing expectations of attendance for officers? How are they communicated? How are they forced?
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