Does your group have committees? Can these committees make decisions that do not have to be ratified by the board?
Committees do a lot of the heavy lifting of governance work. However, these committees generally make recommendations that are approved by the board before they are implemented. In that way, the committee members are not board members and are therefore not subject to the same responsibilities and risks as a board member.
If a committee can make a decision without board approval, then they are acting as a board. Some committee members serve on a committee rather than a board because they want to avoid the risks of board membership. Therefore, we should be careful to make sure we protect the committees by having a good terms of reference document and ensuring that their activities are all approved by the full board.
No comments yet.