If you go to the Columinate Library and search CBLD (Cooperative Board Leadership Development), you will find an encyclopedic list of over one hundred governance resources. And a great many of these Library resources have been contributed by Michael Healy. Healy’s work as a governance consultant predates the CBLD program itself. From his Vermont home base, Healy contributed to early iterations of board [...]
Laura King estimates that most groups spend as much as thirty percent of their meeting time in unproductive behaviors. Groups and leaders often avoid what is difficult, yet they also seek external validation and long for more confidence. In helping identify and change such patterns, King relies on her 25 years of experience exploring adult development—asking leaders to stretch and to build more connected and trusting teams.
Policy Governance is an operating system for boards of directors. As with operating systems for computers, the system itself is not the point of the board’s work; the system simply provides an underlying framework on which boards can build further agreements and activities. Policy Governance does not mandate specific decisions, but does highlight the kinds of decisions a board should make. These decisions include agreements about how the board will work together, how the board will empower and hold accountable the cooperative’s management, how the board will articulate the cooperative’s purpose and set up the cooperative for movement in that direction, and how the board understands the role of member-owners and others in the governance of the cooperative.
Location research consultant Patrick Shabram is a new Columinate member—welcome! Shabram has over thirty years of experience in store location research, market research, and Geographic Information Systems. His clients include both startup co-ops and established food co-ops planning expansion or relocation. Shabram summarizes his professional practice, using current research, as dedicated to providing accurate numbers that support informed decisions by the co-op’s planning group.
