What is board governance? A plain-language guide
Governance vs. management, the three fiduciary duties in plain words, what nonprofit boards owe legally, and why your bylaws matter.
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Earlier posts
Page 4 of 6.
What does a board chair actually do between meetings?
New chairs prepare for the ninety minutes and get surprised by the other twenty-nine days. The between-meetings work, named concretely — and what it really costs in time.
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How do boards decide things between meetings?
Delegated authority, a special meeting, or written consent — the legitimate ways a board decides mid-gap, and why an email 'vote' may be legally nothing.
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Do we need a compliance calendar? And what goes on it?
Yes, and it takes one afternoon to build. What belongs on a board's compliance calendar, who owns each item, and the sixty-day review that keeps it alive.
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Common terms you'll hear when serving on a board
A friendly glossary for new board members: motions, quorum, executive session, fiduciary duty, recusal, and the rest — in plain words.
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What do you do about a board member who stopped showing up?
The escalation that works: notice it early, have the chair make a real private call, offer genuine options, and treat removal as the last resort your bylaws govern.
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Seven steps to launching a new committee
Charge first, then chair, size, cadence, and a real first meeting — how to launch a board committee that produces work instead of meetings.
How do you track board action items without nagging anyone?
The mechanics of board follow-through: writing an action item that can be finished, where the list lives, the mid-cycle nudge, and killing the item that keeps rolling over.
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What numbers should the board watch at every meeting?
A one-page dashboard beats a forty-page appendix: a handful of measures across mission, money, and people — the same ones every meeting, shown honestly.
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I'm new to the board and the finances confuse me. Where do I start?
The three financial reports a board sees, the question each one answers, and four questions any board member can ask without an accounting background.
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