I’ve written before about things you might consider when leaving a volunteer board of directors for a non-profit or other community organization. I’ve also had some good conversations recently about the process on the other side of that kind of community involvement, deciding whether or not to say “yes” to joining a board of directors or taking on some other leadership role. For your sake and for that of the organization, it’s important to do some research and reflecting before accepting that invitation, to make sure your involvement is a good fit and that the experience will be rewarding for all involved.

From my experience, here’s a list of steps to take and questions to ask when you’re considering whether or not to join a board of directors:

1. What’s the function of the board? Is it purely advisory, or does it make and enforce policy? Is it involved in big-picture strategic planning, or is it managing day-to-day operations? What role does it play in the life of the organization?
2. What’s the time commitment? Some boards meet a few times a year in intensive sessions, but don’t otherwise expect much from their members. Other boards meet monthly, with multiple committee meetings and community events in between that you might be expected to attend or even organize. Some boards have very active e-mail mailing lists, others are quiet. Learn how much of your time and energy – in the form of meetings, events and other communications – you’ll be expected to expend.
3. What’s the leadership structure? Who sets the agenda for the board meetings? What’s the relationship between the board’s executive committee or other leadership and the rest of the members? What’s the relationship between the board and the staff? Are there “covert leaders” who have exceptional but unofficial or unnamed influence?
4. How are decisions made? Do board conversations seek to build consensus, or is discussion about convincing a majority to vote a certain way? When there are concerns or conflicts, how are they resolved? Are stakeholders consulted, or informed after the fact?
5. What’s your anticipated role? Are you being invited to join because you have a specific skill, affiliation or resource that you’ll be expected to use (e.g. you’re a lawyer and they need free legal advice)? Do they already know what committee or project they want you to work on, or will they wait to discern what might be the best fit for you?
6. What’s the new member orientation process? Are new board members formally oriented to the processes and culture of the board, or are they just expected to show up and figure it out? Who does the orienting, and what approach do they use?
7. How is institutional memory preserved? Does the board create and publish thorough meeting minutes? Are past decisions and discussions easily reviewable so that conversations aren’t re-hashed with board member turnover? Are key documents like bylaws, member contact lists, and financial statements made easily available?
8. What’s a meeting like? Ask to sit in on a board meeting as an observer and see how it’s conducted. Are the espoused values and mission of the organization manifested in the way the board members interact with each other? Is member participation even and equitable, or unbalanced and dominated? How does it feel to spend an hour of your time in that setting?
9. Why did other board members say yes, and why are they still there? Talk to other members of the board about their experiences, what they think works well, and what they see as areas for organizational growth. What frustrates them? What projects and successes get them excited?
10. Check your schedule. Even if the answers to all of the above questions point toward a “yes,” look at your existing time commitments and personal aspirations, and ask whether or not you can fully engage in the life of the organization without compromising those. Do you have enough time in the day for a new role?

Are there other things you take into consideration when deciding what good causes and organizations you give your own time to?

One aspect of board culture that seems to be in total chaos everywhere is how a board member can leave a board of directors before their natural term is up in a positive and professional way. Based on my own experiences – sometimes as a board member who did a poor job of leaving early, sometimes as a board leader who was disappointed in how others parted ways – I’ve some unsolicited advice to offer:

1. Don’t Board Fade. Board Fading is the practice of slowly and quietly starting to disengage from the life of the organization. First you miss a few meetings, then you miss a few more without even sending your regrets, then you stop paying attention to the e-mail listserv, and then you just stop caring altogether. It’s a common and tempting practice in the world of ridiculous conflicting priorities, but it leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, I think. If you find that you cannot serve out your duties as a board member, confront that head on and do something about it.
2. Don’t Resign by E-Mail or Voicemail. Ultimately, boards are still groups of people who have relationships with each other as they work to achieve some common goals. I think we owe each other the courtesy and care that comes with talking face-to-face about the things in our relationships that are difficult. To resign from a board with an e-mail or voicemail message is not only unprofessional, it does not provide any closure. You should take the time to meet with the board president or some other representative, and talk about why you’re leaving, what kind of relationship you’d like to have with the organization in the future, and what could have been done differently. If you still want to put your resignation in writing for everyone else, that’s fine.
3. Don’t let past board members become ghosts. If you’re in a leadership role on a board that someone is leaving early, or even if you’re not, the resignation discussion is not the end of the process. The person was originally on the board for a reason, and so it’s worth it to find out why their board experience didn’t match up with those original expectations. Your development efforts will also benefit from finding ways to maintain contact with the former board member, so that they can remain an informal spokesperson for the organization, and continue to offer their own support (volunteering, financial contributions, or otherwise). Just because they can’t come to board meetings any more doesn’t mean they can’t still participate.
4. Don’t speak ill of your former organizational colleagues. Or, at least don’t speak ill of them to others without first communicating your concerns directly to them first. Like all relationships, just because there’s a shift in its status, it doesn’t mean that you’re free to be reckless in your comments about it to others. You may find that you have other connections to those people that matter to you in the future, or that another organization you want to join will hear about how this parting of ways went and what was said. If you have concerns about how things were handled, work that out with the person(s) involved, don’t gossip about them.

That’s what I’ve got for now.  The theme here, of course, is to try to live out organizational relationships with the same intentionality, humanity and sensitivity that you would use in personal relationships.  I think we sometimes forget that organizations (even the largest corporate enterprises) are just groups of individual people, most of them trying to do the best they can.

If you have experience in the parting of ways with an organization’s board of directors or similar kinds of “endings,” feel free to share the practices and principles that you think should help shape those acts.