As a board member, You need to have a clear understanding of your organization vision and roles.
Basically there two roles of board members:
- Legal complaints
- Financial assets
These are basic roles but it is more than that because these two basic roles are not enough for an effective board.
There are five primary leadership for an effective board
- Providing strategic leadership
- Managing financial stability
- Serving as an ambassador for the organization
- Supporting and supervising the executive director
- Ensuring healthy governance
There is need to keep the board focus on the big picture and orient them about the organization
The board Chair provide:
- Leadership by Leading strategically: It means you are in charge of big picture you are there to communicate the direction and goals
- Financial stability: Which is essential for organization’s plans to get there
Ngo periodically carries out planning process for the organization, apart from having a plan, the board should have a monitoring and evaluation program As as well as monitoring outcome, impact and performance.
- Financial stability; is essential for organization viable and successes and as a board member the board need to understand the organization business model the board need to understand these three areas of financial stability
- Program cost
- Capital structure
- Program limits
The board needs to understand if the organization has adequate infrastructure to create accurate and timely financial and he should make sure he understand the organization financial such as
- Budget
- Balance sheet
- Income statement
- Audio report
- Annual financial report
- Corporate registrations .
Develop strategies to find your mission that are realistic and support your organization business model insure that the laws and regulations are followed such as registration, audit and filing
Be an ambassador super hero and event cultivate relationship that are beneficial to the organization help in fund raising events within the network by sharing Do not donate, supporting personally and supporting fundraising events
The number one reason people join NGO Board is because they were asked to join and boards members need to ask others to join and support mission of the network.
the organization and listen to the community members and need of the organization and share the impact of your organization.
The board evaluate what tools are available and what tools are needed to tell the organist story.
Another vital role of a board member are
- Supervising
- Support
- Evaluation
The key performance of the chairman of the board is that he recruit and hired the executive director and have an emergency and long-term succession plan for the executive director as a board member you have a legal responsibilities of:
Care : As a board member, your duty of care to your position is
actively participating and attending meetings regularly.
Loyalty : You have to put the interest of the organization first, if you have any conflicts of interest you must be willing to disclose it
Obedience: Your duty is to follow the law, ensuring compliance, reviewing by-laws and filling of tax or annual returns.
The board chairman is responsible in recruiting new board and the recruitment should reflects diversity and background of the communities, staff that have mix of skills that will advance the mission and progress of the organization and also, such recruitment should be based on competence ,passion and best fit.
Board members are network contributor to the growth of the organization.
