Overboarding occurs when a director serves on more boards than they can adequately handle. Admittedly, the term comes up more with the publicly traded corporations. The risks of overboarding are that your directors may face competing commitments which causes them to miss meetings or to be less well prepared for the meetings that they attend. If your board member has an important issue being dealt with on one of their other boards, they may not have the time to provide adequate supervision of your organization. On the positive side, a board member who serves on multiple boards brings more experience to your board.
As with all governance matters, balance is key. The question of whether you need a policy to make sure that your board members are not overboarded is one best left to each organization to figure out.
No comments yet.