Sales Call about Governance Training by Tom

Topics Sales Call about Governance Training by Tom

You know the ten principles of the complimentary model of board governance and what that looks like and how board should operate. 

We could start with an overview. Basically, like a description of the role and the responsibilities of the board in governing the organization and then also spend some time looking at description of the role and the responsibilities of the Executive Director in managing the operations of the organization.

One of the key objectives or outcomes – I get this word all the time, is people say they now have more clarity. That, I think, is kind of the magic word for most boards that we work with is, at the end of that session, the members and the ED, you’ll all have more clarity around who is supposed to do what and when. That’s something that we could look at.

Some board say, “You know what, Tom, we’ve got a few burning issues. Could you maybe spend some time today on code of ethics and conflict of interest guidelines?” “Okay. Great. We can do that.” Or maybe looking at codes of conduct and appraisals for the board. 

One board that I worked with last week, they follow our complimentary model of board governance and have her by the decade, but they haven’t done a board evaluation in about two-and-a-half years. So, we said, “Hey, we’re all in the room right now. You’ve got me. Let’s role up our sleeves and get this done right now rather than put it on the agenda for our future board meetings.”

It really depends how you want to use my time, right Jennifer? We can do board appraisals, ED appraisals. We could look at the different types of committee. For some board, that’s the challenge like how do we delegate and how do we know who’s responsible for what? Is it a board committee? Is it a CEO working committee? Who’s the chair of that committee? It just becomes a confusing mess for a lot of boards. 

Maybe getting clarity around the types of committees. Or sometimes board say, “I think we’re doing good work, but how do we really know what’s going on in the office?” Well, we could spend some time talking about the four reporting mechanisms that are available to the board. It really depends kind of what are the burning issues of the day.

I think that would be a really great start for this group, Jennifer, as we start with kind of an overview, a description of the roles, and responsibilities of the board in governing the organization so they really get that. And then the role and responsibilities of you as the ED and managing the operations and those distinctions between association governance and management. 

Yeah. So, he’s got some backgrounds and historical context. Yeah, that would be really useful. So that’s all included in the investment is – and it’s not interviewing all the board members, it’s actually dealing with the chair of the board or the past chair, in this case, and spending more time chatting with you as well. The key, so called, stakeholders and really getting an idea of what are some of the topics and issues that we need to address in the workshop.

Just to kind of double confirm then. So, you’re looking at some Saturday dates. I’m looking at my calendar now and I just want to make sure this doesn’t conflict with – you mention that someone has some travel already booked. Is that right? If we’re able to lock in the 26th of October, I will deliver that session for you because I’ll be in town. In fact, I’ll be speaking at the CSE convention earlier that week so I could do that. But if we’re looking at some other dates, it will likely be my colleague Brenda who would deliver that session.

Alright. So, I’ll drop you an email with some possible dates. 

Alright. And take care of your cold, okay? Alright. Cheers. Bye.