I wish you could share your conflict of interest stories online, Larry - but I understand why you can't. I am heading down a path with my organization where conflict of interest may become a major interest. What do you do when your board votes that a particular activity is NOT a conflict of interest, but it seems evident that it is? I am senior staff, not the E.D. - but the potential conflict is in my area.
Cindy Boyer
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Larry Fisher
Sent: Monday, October 25, 2010 6:16 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [SPAM] Re: [MUSEUM-L] Board Requirements
Importance: Low
Laurie,
I would strongly recommend you join BoardSource:
http://www.boardsource.org. I joined years ago and it was one of the
best decisions I made as far as understanding and setting expectations
with the board. Get a copy of Ten Basic Responsibilities of Nonprofit
Boards, in fact get several copies you'll probably end up wanting others
to read it too. You can also just jump in head first and get what they
call the Governance Series which includes the book and a lot of other
useful handbooks on the subject. You'll want your board to read them too
but that may be too much to expect at this point. Board Source will be a
great place to get forms, set standards, etc. and most of all to help
you have a dialog with your board leadership.
Get a Conflict of Interest policy in place asap. More importantly, get
your auditors to chime in if you have potential conflicts already
affecting the institution. A good relationship with the auditor can help
you bring these key issues out without your looking like a whistle
blower. I'd be happy to share some conflict of interest stories with you
off-line.
Giving requirements are a tricky thing and really depend greatly on the
culture in place at your institution and at institutions in your
community. It would be good to get together with your peers in your area
and discuss these things with them to see what they do at each of their
institutions - besides it will do you good to meet with them anyway and
network on a myriad of subjects. In the end these requirements rarely
work out well if they're driven by you alone. Enlist board members or
donors to help set expectations and communicate peer to peer at their
level. Ideally you want to make it their idea, not yours.
Buying tables, tickets, etc. also best if these expectations are
developed peer to peer. Use your event committees to set the
expectations. I have successfully used the strategy of event performance
to drive committees to set expectations - If the committee agrees to a
fund raising goal for the event and they fully (including staff time,
overhead, etc.) understand the expenses, they are much more likely to
want to pass along the commitment to financial performance to their
peers. Same strategy for exhibits. You can also employ the reverse -
make sure to report out the expenses on a per person basis based on
attendance - that always blows their minds. I've used per cap spending
and revenue often in order to make a case. Boards understand the
transaction better at that level for some reason.
My two cents...
On 10/25/2010 5:14 PM, Laurie Williams wrote:
> I am looking for information on Board policy/ Requirements like:
> Conflict of interest forms
> Are your boards required to give financial or in kind donations to the musem.
> board event participation. Are board members required to buy tables at fundraising events? Tickets to special exhibits?
>
> If you could share any policies that would be great.
>
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The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
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