|
|
Enron Mail |
BOARD CAFE
The Newsletter Exclusively for Members of Nonprofit Boards of Directors Short enough to read over a cup of caffe latte, the Board Cafe offers a menu of ideas, opinion, news, and resources to help board members give and get the most out of board service. Co- published by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services and BoardSource (formerly National Center for Nonprofit Boards). Chef / Writer: Jan Masaoka. November/December 2001. Vol. 5 No.10. Ready-to- print version at: http://www.boardcafe.org. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Once I was on a board and was so unhappy with the new executive director that I decided to resign from the board. I called the Board President to tell her I was leaving, and to my complete surprise, she said that nearly the whole board felt the same way. Since there had never been any disagreements or sharp words at any of the board meetings, I had assumed that everyone ELSE on the board was happy with the executive director. The Board President had telephoned a few of the board members who had left before their terms were up, and she had been surprised to hear their dissatisfaction with the executive director. That prompted her to call other board members who had the same sense. A few months later, the executive director was fired, and she subsequently sued the organization for wrongful termination (the suit was settled at a low amount). This story links two of the topics for this month's Board Cafe: exit interviews for board members, and "What Every Board Needs to Do About Insurance." Also an item on a terrific new book, and here's a link to Planet 501c3's "Meeting-Shortening Maneuvers": http://search.compasspoint.org/publications/~planet/cartoon_page. lasso?id=34. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + EXIT INTERVIEWS FOR BOARD MEMBERS What does it mean when board members leave? Corporations routinely hold exit interviews with departing employees and tabulate the reasons for the departures. If there seem to be silent and/or disgruntled board members leaving the board, a series of short telephone exit interviews might reveal important reasons why. Ask a former board chair, consultant, or another neutral person to do the interviews. In many cases, departing board members reveal that they have left due to disagreements with the executive director or the board chair, or are disturbed about the overall direction of the organization. PRACTICAL WAYS TO REACH PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES Does your organization want practical, real-life advice on reaching people with disabilities? A GREAT book, Access Aware: Extending Your Reach to People With Disabilities, is now available from the Alliance for Technology Access with points on language (Say "She uses a wheelchair" rather than "She's confined to a wheelchair"), facilities ("Use the closed fist test for handles-to ensure that people with limited use of his or her hands can open the door") and more. One of the board's jobs is to ensure that the organization's services are accessible to everyone . . . this straightforward resource will be helpful both to the board and to staff. Go to http://www.ATAccess.org/resources/acaw/acawinterest.html or call 800.455.7970. $45 for a printed manual and $20 for the PDF version (both include online access). + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Now for this month's "Main Course" at the Board Cafe: WHAT YOU NEED TO DO ABOUT INSURANCE By Melanie Herman, Nonprofit Risk Management Center Not every nonprofit needs every type of insurance. But every nonprofit board should consider its insurance needs and the resources needed to protect the good health and mission of the organization. We offer 8 tips on insurance issues to get you started. 1. Examine exposures first. Rather than start with looking at the current insurance policies, begin by looking at how your nonprofit is exposed to possible lawsuits and losses. While lawsuits against nonprofits are relatively uncommon, the most common types of suits against nonprofit boards are ones that allege wrongful employment practices (such as wrongful termination), sexual harassment, or retaliation. Which of your activities are more likely to lead to lawsuits, damage to reputation, finances or property? 2. Make sure your organization is working with an expert it can trust. An insurance agent, broker or consultant can provide valuable advice and practical help on coverage for your nonprofit. Seek someone experienced with nonprofits, and familiar with the work you do (or committed to learning about it). Your advisor should live up to the promises he or she makes, give prompt and credible answers to your questions, take the time to understand your organization and seem genuinely interested in helping you. To avoid awkward situations, and to prevent a potentially dangerous conflict of interest, choose someone unaffiliated with your nonprofit. 3. Have an annual report to the board on insurance and risk. If you don't have a board Insurance or Risk Management Committee, be sure that insurance review is assigned to another committee, such as the Finance Committee or to an individual board member. Though insurance policy language can be hard to swallow, and even harder to understand, it's important that someone from the staff or board read the policy from beginning to end, including the policy exclusions, endorsements and definitions. 4. Read the laws. Ask the Risk Management or Finance Committee to look at the language in your state volunteer protection laws as well as the federal Volunteer Protection Acts. Remember that none of these laws provides absolute protection against suits alleging wrongdoing on the part of nonprofit board members. For more information about the federal Volunteer Protection Act, see http://www.eriskcenter.org/docs/protection.cfm. State laws differ and some states do a better job than others of informing the public; find the link to your state's laws at http://www.eriskcenter.org/docs/s_state.shtml. 5. Reduce risk as well as buy insurance. Just as car insurance isn't a reason to drive recklessly, nonprofit insurance is only one element in risk management. The board should consider conducting a risk management audit, or simply identifying ways to reduce risk. There may be simple ways to increase building safety, to improve personnel policies, strengthen compliance with personnel policies, improve performance evaluations, or to screen staff and volunteers more thoroughly. 6. Talk over the various types of insurance and do what you can, when you can. No single insurance policy covers all exposures and some are more important than others, depending on an organization's circumstances. For some, a property policy covering buildings and personal property against accidental loss is most important. In another organization, a policy providing protection for volunteer injuries may be of first import. If you can't afford all of the coverages you'd like your nonprofit to have, start with the policy you consider most important and add others when you can. 7. Consider Directors & Officers (D&O) liability insurance. While many suits against nonprofits are brought against the nonprofit corporation as well as individual managers and board members, in a few cases suits are brought solely against board members themselves. Many small nonprofits don't buy D&O insurance simply because they can't afford it. In other cases, the board may decide that the risk of a lawsuit is too unlikely, or that there may be other ways to finance defending the board and the organization. Whether or not you have D&O insurance, there are board practices that reduce the likelihood of a suit, such as preventing conflicts of interest, recording "no" votes in the minutes, and ensuring that the organization's employment policies are consistently applied. For more about D&O insurance, see http://www.genie.org and click on "Insurance" in the FAQ section. 8. Test the market. Every three to five years consider "shopping" your insurance program. Invite several brokers or agents to submit proposals, or ask the broker to obtain bids from several insurance carriers. Doing so will give the board a basis for comparison and a sense about whether you're paying a fair price. At the end of 2001, experts are predicting that insurance will become more difficult to buy, premiums will become more expensive and new exclusions and restrictions are likely to appear. This might be a good time to consider changing to a different carrier or to review your overall insurance program. Related Board Cafe article: Sample Conflict of Interest Policy (January 2000) http://www.boardcafe.org/bc2000_01.html. The Nonprofit Risk Management Center provides FREE technical assistance to nonprofits via telephone or e-mail. For more information on any of the topics covered in this article, visit http://www.nonprofitrisk.org or call 202.785.3891. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + You are reading the BOARD CAFE, published monthly by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services and BoardSource (formerly the National Center for Nonprofit Boards). CompassPoint: 706 Mission Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103; (phone) 415.541.9000; (fax) 415.541.7708; San Jose office: 1922 The Alameda, San Jose, 95126; (phone) 408-248-9505. (e-mail) boardcafe@compasspoint.org (website) http://www.compasspoint.org. BoardSource: 1828 L Street NW, Ste. 900 , Washington, D.C. 202.452.6262 website http://www.ncnb.org We welcome your comments and contributions to the BOARD CAFE. If you would like your own free fax subscription to the BOARD CAFE, contact the Board Cafe at any of the numbers listed above. If you would like to have the BOARD CAFE delivered to you free via electronic mail, send an blank e-mail message to boardcafe-on@lists.compasspoint.org. To unsubscribe to the BOARD CAFE send a blank email to boardcafe-off@lists.compasspoint.org, or fax your request to 415.541.7708. The Board Cafe's e-mail/fax list is not rented, exchanged, or given to any other entity. © 2001 CompassPoint Nonprofit Services/BoardSource (formerly National Center for Nonprofit Boards) **This list is powered by npo-mail.org, offering high-quality mail and list service to the nonprofit community.
|