Governing non profit organizations Board of governors and trustees of an organization are responsible for monitoring quality and to see as if the organization fulfils its mission?.

What if trustees start managing rather than to govern? Can cause several types of damages to the organization. Loss of perspective Loss of talent.

Why do boards administer rather than govern? Special interests of trustees. Action oriented rather than to delegate Tendency to manage internal transition or crisis. External crisis.

Policy and its levels trustees can have very good reasons to be involved in policy matters. Since they can not and should not make all policy decisions. Boars should decide which level deserve what level of consideration.

Board policy level Board of trustees should concentrate its talent and energies on policy levels that have the most impact on the organization’s future and let the rest of the issues go. Remember the board role is to govern and to keep the organization on straight course over the long term.

Administrative model of policy levels Major policies (values,direction,principles) Secondary policies ( clientele, systems ) Functional policies (planning,finance etc) Minor policies (day to day practices) S.O.P’s (process, method) Rules (guide for daily conduct)

Four development phases of a policy Define policy objectives. Formulate the policy statement Implement the policy. Evaluate the policy.

Scope of board Scope of board action is greatest when the knowledge is least complete and scope of board action is least when the knowledge is great. mostly managers provide managerial information's to the board and not governance information's causing board involvement in administrative matters. board must be elastic,able to stretch and adapt as circumstances warrant. board and trustee who are alert to the general level of policy and its phase will be better able to determine whether, why and to what extent a particular matter merits their attention.

Easy way to get feed back Give some time to revive after each meeting. Arrange annual meeting or try to self evaluate trough un written un spoken rules of the game Seek comments from ceo or senior key internal and external constituencies.

How boards can develop its own systems of measurement and control? Based on studies of hundreds of non profit organizations in 25 years just 4 questions can help in system development. 1.Are the organization goals consistent with its financial resources? 2.Is the organization practicing intergenerational equity? 3.Are the sources and uses of funds appropriately matched? 4.Is the organization sustainable?

How to address four questions? Board if itself address the 4 questions will be time consuming and not as easy. Subcommittees provide the best forum to address and to determined relevant measures. These committees may be Planning committee Compensation committee Auditing committee Regulatory committee all committees should be supported by appropriate staff people. All members of the committees can co ordinate to know about each others work but not overlapping to a greater extent.

Thanks PREPARED BY MANZOOR YOUSAF