It's the time of year when organizations run conferences, special events, and volunteer recognition functions. Such gatherings are great opportunities to educate board volunteers about what other volunteers/members are doing, connect the board directly with a range of people who have opinions about the organization, and make the board visible to other stakeholders.
The main goal is for the board to simply mingle, talk and listen. Accomplishing this, however, takes planning. Here are some suggestions:
- Don't keep the board together as a group at any event. Instead, scatter them to seats at different banquet tables, have each attend different concurrent workshops, and even sit randomly throughout the hall at a plenary session. Then, encourage informal conversation, but with a purpose: Agree on one to three questions that every board member will ask participants during the course of the event, so that afterwards you can share frequent responses.
- Make sure board volunteers are identifiable by special nametags, color codes, or ribbons. Give the average member a fighting chance to recognize and talk with them.
- Limit private meetings to conduct board business during events as which other attendees may perceive such absence from the room as conveniently avoiding interaction with members. Even if this is a false assumption in terms of motive, board members who are kept in private meetings simply cannot be talking to members at the same time. Hold board meetings before or after, but allow board members the freedom to actually participate in the event itself.
- Depending on the personalities of board volunteers and the culture of your organization, add some fun into the proceedings. Rotate officers at the podium for introductions or moderating panels, but have them introduce themselves with a short anecdote about their most memorable organization moment, why they ran for the board, or what mistakes they made in the past. Or have them hand out gag gifts as special recognition to selected members. Or dress them in costumes. Whatever works in your situation.
It's the board chair who establishes board culture and therefore has the responsibility of assuring that the sort of staying-connected activities described here become a natural expectation of the role of any board member. The chair models behavior, of course. Does the chair stand on ceremony, keeping staff and volunteers distant and rarely mingling informally? Most leaders do not intentionally act regal. At a minimum, you can suggest more effective ways to interact at an event focused on volunteers for the purpose of celebrating the contribution of time and expertise. Maybe your executive can then keep the momentum going!