All board committees should have a charter – a description of the committee’s purpose and authority. One person, generally the board secretary, should have primary responsibility for drafting charters as directed by the board. This helps the board have a consistent approach for how charters are written. Committee charters should include: The lifespan of the committee (An ad hoc committee should exist only as [...]
Shared challenges in board governance have perennially driven co-ops to establish shared resources and services. Consultants and collaboration around governance and leadership development have been key to building shared cooperative identity and local community impact. From the early days of the Cooperative Board Leadership Development (CBLD) program, consultants serving co-op boards and other mission-driven organizations have been asking the question, “What resources do [...]
Key Insights The major takeaways from interviews with three co-ops on their initiatives to improve diversity in hiring and increase cultural awareness on their staff teams are make staff diversity and cultural awareness a priority to your team (and budget) create goals and make the measurables visible to your team aim to be reflective of your community use community engagement as a hiring tool [...]
By Michael Healy 184 May-June 2016 Co-ops bring to life their member-owners’ common values, and for most co-ops these include a desire for the co-op to be a great workplace. In the event that your co-op’s board of directors hears employees assert that something is amiss in the workplace, how will the board react? One end of the range of options often involves the [...]
By Carolee Colter, Helena O'Connor 161 July - August - 2012 An audit can be described as an unbiased examination and evaluation of systems and processes of an organization in order to demonstrate whether they are in compliance with a standard. The human resources (HR) function of any business, including cooperatives, covers all aspects of the employer's relationship with its employees: personnel policies, hiring, [...]
Cooperation among cooperatives is more than just a golden principle that all strive to achieve, it’s actually an organizational imperative that makes good use of collective time and resources. Columinate’s Cooperative Board Leadership Development program (CBLD) is built precisely to offer co-op boards the tools to make informed decisions and gain efficiency.
An Executive Session (sometimes called a “closed session”) is a meeting, or portion of a meeting, open to only members of the board of directors and individuals invited by the board of directors. All meeting attendees are expected to keep content of the meeting confidential unless the board decides to make it public. "Confidential" means that those present are expected not to share or discuss the information [...]
At the Moscow Food Co-op, all C policies (Board Process) and D policies (Board-Management Relationship) are currently monitored using categorical surveys sent out to each board member with either a “How much do you agree with the following statement?” scale or, “With this sub-policy, is the board in compliance or not in compliance?” For each global policy and sub-policy, there is a comment option where a board member can express their thoughts and can explain why they answered as they did.
Board meetings are at the heart of board work and well-run, productive meetings are an important part of the foundation for any good board. Meetings are typically open to owners, and sometimes others, to attend. Having clear guidelines on attendance at, and participation in, board meetings will support the board in doing its work and will set clear expectations for those attending. Proactively defining [...]
