Before You Say Yes .... Doreen Pendgracs
knowledge in trust and confidence until instructed to release it to the public, your constituents, or even someone as trusted (to you) as your spouse.
This can be very difficult. When you are on a board of directors, many people will come to you asking for information about what has been discussed at a meeting. You may have known them a long time. You may feel you can trust them. They will be very persuasive, and promise not to share the information with anyone else. But remember: now that you are a director, your first allegiance is to the board. Don’t let yourself feel pressured into acting improperly or without careful thought.
To help you to prepare for such enquiries, before you leave a board meeting be sure that you clearly understand what information can be released if asked, when it can be released, and to whom.
Using Tip Sheets
On one board I belonged to, the issues were so complex that the organization prepared “tip sheets” for its directors. These useful documents provided directors with clear and correct information — accessible at their fingertips — so that answers given by the various board members to the inevitable questions were all accurate and along the same wavelength. This was extremely helpful, and a practice I would recommend to any board dealing with complex or sensitive issues.
Maureen Cavan, executive director of Access Copyright, leads the progressive organization I am speaking of, and has been responsible for introducing many positive changes that have helped to streamline the collective, resulting in a more effective board for her to work with.
“Clear speaking notes defining facts and reasoning for decisions taken by the board of directors are an invaluable tool for board members in maintaining open communications with the community they represent,” says Cavan. “They ensure that all members of the community receive the same clear messages and they provide board members with the confidence to clearly present positions and answer questions.”
Some people may feel that providing directors with speaking notes is a form of filtering or influencing what is being said. In some cases this may be true, but when you are dealing with complex issues that can be easily misunderstood, it is my opinion that providing directors with clear, comprehensive information only makes the directors, and ultimately the organization, stronger and more effective.
As directors, we generally take quickly written brief notes at meetings, but are they written in the same language (with the same tone and accuracy) as what might be written by informed staff following a long and intense meeting? Not likely.
Having expertly prepared notes or an executive summary distributed to all directors at, or immediately following, a meeting will eliminate uncertainty and the dissemination of inaccurate or inappropriate information. It will still enable you to put your own personal spin on the information — as long as you don’t distort the facts.
The digital world has made it so easy for any organization to quickly forward an electronic document to all directors following a meeting. If this is done, there can be no excuse for directors to complain about insufficient time or information necessary to provide feedback or a report to their constituents following the meeting, as most of the work has already in effect been done for them!
What Are Your Rights?
We’ve now learned about the responsibilities of board members. But what are your rights as a director?
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