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Random advice for new Board members

Being on the Board

• You are in the public view (sometimes known as "being in the fishbowl"). You don't have to like it, but you'll do better if you accept it.
• Be professional in how you treat people. You are no longer Joe Jaycee. Your actions reflect on the chapter, and guests/new-members/non-members will take your actions as representative of us as an organization.
• Treat non-Jaycees with care. You may only be here 1,2,3,4 years, but your actions may affect the chapter's relationship with a business for years to come. (or ruin one that has existed for years)
• Talk to the past people in your position. You may learn a lot about what worked, and what didn't work. That doesn't mean you can't try something again, but at least you are fore-warned about re-inventing a potentially broken wheel. Make sure your chairpeople do the same thing. Its amazing how much people will remember. (and a shame how much we've let ourselves forget)
• Remember there are 12 months in the year.. pace yourself.
• You are moving up the Leadership/Management chain. Generally this mean you are transitioning from worker-bee to helper-of-worker-bees. The hardest thing to do is to start letting go of doing things yourself (which you are probably all very good at), and instead helping others to do them. Even more frustrating is to let those other people do them, and see them done less well than you think you could have done. But that is part of their growth process.

Budget

• You are the stewards of the chapter's money. Spend it more miserly than you spend your own.
• When in March you see that we "will" make $10,000 this year (according to the approved Budget), and decide it will be "ok" to spend $500 of that "surplus", remember that all those Ways & Means projects have NOT been run yet.... just as the Budget does not GUARANTEE hoped-for incomes (just by putting the prediction down on paper). Neither should you view the Budget for your project/area as money that is definitely yours to be spent. The Budget is a *plan*. See the previous bullet.
• Please do not spend $$ "because it was in the budget". Spend it *IF* it is in the budget AND *IF* we/the-project need what it will buy. You should not spend $$ that was not approved in the Budget, without it coming to a vote of the Board.
• PLEASE view the bank account as a long-term emergency/building fund. We do have members that can remember when we were unable to reimburse people b/c the Chapter was just flat broke (less than 10 years ago).
• How/where you choose to spend Chapter $$ makes a philosophical statement about what the Board considers "valuable". ie. how much do we spend on the Board itself, on Socials, or on attending State conventions, vs. Community Service and ID? We spend $3,000/year on CS, and over $20,000/year on meeting/office space.

General Board interaction

• Set clear expectations with people above you and below you. Exactly what those expectations are is less important than both of you having a common understanding about what they will be.
  • how often each person be in contact
  • what they should do for chairpeople
  • what they should NOT do for chairpeople
  • how to handle and prevent problems
  • VPs not going around the Director without agreement from Director on how and when.
  • instruct chairpeople to go thru the Director whenever possible, but to feel free to go to VP if there is something they need to address.
• Don't undermine each other.
• Always complain up the chain of command.
• Confront problems and solve them (if possible), do not let them fester. Even an agreement to disagree (with the issue having been aired) is better.
• Don't simply try to be a "placeholder" in your "job" for the year. Find something to try to challenge yourself. Do the same for your Directors, and Directors challenge your chairpeople to challenge themselves.
• Recognize that different people care about the chapter in different ways. And show that care in different ways. Even tho you may hugely disagree with someone on something, it is very likely that _they_ think they are doing something in the best interest of the chapter.

During Board Meetings

And yes, this advice comes from a year when Board meetings ended (on average) at 9:30.. it can be done.. they don't have to last til 11:30, but it takes an effort to keep them moving.

• On big issues, it is often easiest/more-efficient to find compromises by involving only 4-6 people, who hopefully represent all sides of the issue vs. an all-out debate with 20+ board members. Often the small group can be the VPs. Find a solution that makes all the VPs happy (with only 6 people arguing), and that solution is often likely to also be a happy compromise for the entire board.
• Save yourself (and others) a LOT of time, by not "springing" surprise issues at a Board meeting. Give people warning of the issue, and as much info as you can via an email. This will let people spend time OUTSIDE of the Board meeting to process their thoughts. Otherwise you WILL waste a lot of time as people during the Board meeting are "thinking out loud", b/c they have not had time to think things thru.
• Springing issues at the last moment also smacks of trying to sneak something through before people have time to consider it fully. Have more respect for your fellow Board members.
• Things to think about before raising your hand to speak in a board meeting discussion or debate...
  • Will my comment add useful information or perspective to fellow Board members?
  • Am I about to repeat or rephrase something that has already been said?" (don't beat a dead horse)
  • Has it already become clear that the motion will / will not pass, almost unanimously?" (if so, then "call the question" and move on!)
  • Is my comment pertinent to helping people decide how to vote on the current motion, or would it be more appropriate to make at another time?" (remember, all discussions generally take place within the structure of a specific motion, so keep discussion focused on that motion until you vote on it)
  • Is my comment of interest to most or all of my fellow board members, or is it something better discussed (later) among a smaller group such as a VP / Director / Project Chair?" (example, what color should the t-shirts be, or do you plan to serve pizza or hamburgers at the event?" Take these issues off-line.)
  • Have I expressed myself clearly?" (e.g., "I think we should vote 'no' on this motion for the following specific reason...". Or, "Before we vote on this, I just wanted to make sure people understood such-and-such fact, since there have been some misconceptions about it." You may want to write down your comment prior to saying it out loud, so you can be clearer)
  If everyone does this before speaking, your Board meetings will end MUCH earlier.
• This goes for wise-cracks too. They're all funny. But do you want "funny" to add an hour to your Board meetings?
• If you are just going to "say what so-and-so said"... don't :-) Your Board meetings will end an hour earlier.
• Beware of criticizing CPGs at Board meetings. From the chairperson's perspective, they may have waited an hour to present, gotten 2 minutes of your time, and all they hear is "this is bad, this is wrong". Consider whether you can address the issue with the other Director or VP later, and let them work with the chairperson later in a less intimidating environment.
• If a chairperson's CPG is in shambles at the Board meeting, then a Director and a VP did not do their job to review it beforehand. Other Board members should not take this out on the Chairperson. Let them go and do the work of running their project.

During General Membership Meetings

• Front table etiquette: Yes we can see you passing notes and telling jokes at the front table, and not paying attention to the chairpeople making announcements. As you do, so are the members likely to do. Show respect to the people making their announcements, and the members will.
• As VPs you set the tempo of the meeting by how many chairpeople you invite to annc, and how much you instruct them to be brief. You make the difference between an 8pm mtg and an 8:45 mtg. Each annc you make (vs. a chairperson) will save 1-2 minutes. Each VP doing that twice could trim 20 minutes off of the meeting.
• For recurring projects, you (the VP) can make the announcements, a year long project chair does not need to speak, except maybe once per trimester (for the "face-time")
• Each VP should be sure to miss at least enough meetings so that each of their Directors has-to/gets-to fill in at the front table :-)

VPs & Directors (ditto Directors & Chairpeople)

• When you are overwhelmed, or have a problem, speak up. It is easier to head off an upcoming problem than to fix it after the fact. It is also more responsible to admit when you cannot do something vs. letting it go undone.
• Make sure that anyone doing something for you knows its ok to come to you with problems.
• Someone will resign this year. And that's ok. Time availability will change. Interest levels will change. And some people simply don't find Board life to be what they thought it would be. But they may be fabulous chairpeople. Don't hold it against them, instead encourage them to go do what they do best.
• Someone will let you down this year. Be prepared to find a way to let them still be your friend, or step down now.
• If you think you want to quit, talk about it with the relevant people before just quitting. You may be able to fix things. Or those people might confirm you desire to quit as the best option. Either way is better than hating what you are doing, and then doing it badly. Your disinterest will be obvious to your chairpeople and serve no good purpose.
• Do you know how to write a good CPG? Can you balance a CPG budget? Have you attended Chairperson Training and read over the information on the Chairperson Resources web page? You should be the "expert" resource for your Chairpeople and/or Directors. And (nothing personal) but many new Directors get onto the Board without always having had the best Director as a role model when they ran their project. Assume you can do more, and do it better than was done for you, and strive to learn how to improve. (and read the PDF on the Board page about being a Director).

Chairpeople

• Start early (even months early).
• Make sure the VP and Director(s) know who is picking the chairperson. Otherwise you may end up with 2, and some hurt feelings.
• Announce that you are looking for a chairperson so that everyone feels like they were informed, and all interested parties feel like they have a chance to get involved.
• Have a fair and open process for picking your chairpeople
• Don't just pick your friends
• Don't just pick "safe" chairpeople. Take a risk on someone new. We are here for leadership development, which inherently means people have something that needs developing.
• Try to pick NEW chairpeople. They will be the ones that develop into the chairpeople for Goodfellows and Haunted House down the road.
• Encourage/challenge chairpeople to experiment, and not to simply do it the same way as last year.
• When a chairperson wants to do something that you disagree with, ask yourself this... will anyone die? Will anyone get hurt? Will the sun still rise the next day if things go exactly as badly as *you* think they will? Feel free to express your concerns. Then ask yourself who the chairperson is.
• Be an advocate and a champion for your chairperson. Help them accomplish what they want to do, and be there if there is an issue from a Board member, etc.
• Good synonyms for "tell" : "inform", "help", "advise"
• Bad synonyms for "tell" : "dictate"
• Don't "steal the thunder" of a chairperson coming up to make an annc... ie "Bob Dylan is coming up to tell us about his Blood Drive this Friday at 8 at the McKimmon Center"... what does Bob have left to say?
• Getting each chairperson "face time" is important. Especially the chairpeople of behind the scenes projects. Of course how many times they get face time determines the length of the meetings.
• Make sure you make every effort to attend at least part of any chairperson's project.
• Write a thank-you note.

Misc

• Remember that everyone is a volunteer. Every minute of their time that they donate is a minute that some project didn't otherwise have. Be thankful for every minute that someone gives, and remember those minutes are theirs to spend, not yours.
• Everyone is not perfect, but they are probably trying to do their best, no matter how imperfect that effort seems :-)
• PRAISE EARLY & OFTEN. Praise costs you nothing, and will mean a lot to someone else.
• Go to CPG Judging. Go to meet people from other chapters and to get ideas from the CPGs you judge. You will be surprised how many valuable contacts you can make, and how many good ideas you can get if you make the effort. (this coming from someone who really doesn't give a flip for the state organization)
• If you notice things that are broken, missing, etc, please take the moment to stop and tell someone.
• Have fun. If you aren't, figure out why and try to fix it.