3 Tips for Building a Solid Governance Structure

Don’t get overwhelmed with your governance structures.  Keep them simple.

Here's three that most have:

  • Board of Directors;
  • Standing Committees (i.e. finance, membership, government affairs, education); and
  • A Task Force for anything else since Task Force’s expire after their work is done.

And use these three different entities to showcase your volunteers and it’s a great proving ground for leadership in your governance structure moving forward.

What do I mean by that?

  • A rock star on a Task Force might be invited to join a Standing Committee in the future;
  • A Standing Committee rock star may be asked to join the Board;
  • A rock star Board member may be asked to chair a Standing Committee; and
  • And those Standing Committee chairs might rise to the leadership positions on the Board (i.e., vice chair, incoming chair and eventually chair).

Just a thought!  But at least you’ll have a track record of their leadership skills over a period of time.

That’s a recipe for success in any governance structure.

For more resources on governance from the Free Management Library go HERE.

And don't forget to create a scorecard for your board.  You can go HERE to find a blog post on that subject!