Board Meetings

When I was a 27-year- old, freshly promoted, and utterly underqualified executive director (back in 1985 we didn’t think to call ourselves “CEO” or “President”), I met with a man named Richard who had raised tens of millions of dollars in his nonprofit career. My goal in setting up the meeting was to pick Richard’s […]

When I spoke at the Annual Meeting of the United Way of York County earlier this week, I was struck by what a positive and effective event Barb Wentworth and her team pulled together. Here are 5 reasons why: 1. A lot was efficiently packed into a reasonable time frame. In under two hours, there was networking, a […]

Frustrated or discouraged by bored faces in the board room? A “silent start” may actually help get meaningful conversations started. At our recent Executive Leadership Forum, dynamic keynote presenter Susan Meier shared a simple strategy to help you move beyond routine tasks and into more strategic and generative conversation. This activity is easy to incorporate, and […]

“Ugh. Can these meetings be more substantive?” “How do we get board members engaged?” “When WILL this meeting be over?” We hear these concerns from our members across the sector—from universities and hospitals to land trusts and libraries. Tapping into your board’s unique attributes in a meaningful way is one of those pesky “never enough” […]

Has the nonprofit board outlived its purpose? What is working well about this model and what is distracting us from our missions? These are questions that over 100 nonprofit executive directors and board chairs gathered to discuss on November 20th in Bath, at MANP’s inaugural Executive Leadership Forum. As event facilitator, Mary Ellen Jackson, Executive […]