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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