When building your organization’s board of directors, it often feels daunting to ensure that all of the bases are covered. In addition to selecting the right people with diverse expertise, experiences, and representation, you also want to set the right tone from the onset to cultivate member buy-in. Because an engaged and active board is critical to overall organizational success, this can feel like a stressful and high-stakes process.
One way to lessen some of that stress is to invest up front in planning a successful onboarding that engages new members and re-energizes continuing ones. Dedicated work in advance will not only lead to a smoother process, but will also allow you to be a more active participant and focus on building relationships with your new board members.
Here are a few of my onboarding essentials:
1. An Engaging and Informative Orientation Process
The new member orientation is critical for introducing your work and getting new members excited to pitch in. Select the date of your orientation before you begin the recruitment process, share it with potential members, and make attendance a requirement.
While there is a lot of information to cover in an orientation session, make it engaging and discussion-based, not just a recitation of facts or a presentation of your history, activities, and mission. This way, new members are not overwhelmed with information and can build rapport with one another while they get their bearings. Bring in additional staff members, partners, or those served by the organization to engage with new board members.
Your orientation is not just the meeting itself, but also the resources that you provide. On that note, make sure that new members have a detailed board handbook. This helps prevent information overload in the session itself, as you can direct participants to their reference materials.
As part of the orientation process, begin to work with new members to craft their story of why they decided to join the board. A clear, concise, and compelling story for why board members opted to engage in this work is critical. Talent strategist and consultant Lisa Friscia has served as both a board chair and an organizational leader. She shared that she offers storytelling training as part of onboarding so that board members can quickly feel comfortable talking about why the organization matters to them, why they care about the issue, and why they chose to join the board.
2. A Full Board Meeting Soon After Orientation
Like the date of your orientation, the dates of full board meetings should be set in advance of recruitment and shared with members. When planning your timeline, have the first full board meeting shortly after new member orientation. New members should leave orientation excited and ready to contribute, and by quickly holding a full meeting, you’ll maintain that important momentum. This is crucial not only for accomplishing the board’s important work, but also for fully integrating new and continuing members into a cohesive body.
Lisa suggests that timely follow up after a board meeting can help board members to understand their role, make them feel connected, and keep the board’s work moving forward. This observation holds true for both new and veteran board members.
3. Prompt Committee Chair Follow Up
If you have had a successful orientation and full board meeting, congratulations! Now, sustain that energy by ensuring that committee chairs reach out to new members as soon as possible. Board committees are where the nuts and bolts work gets done, and usually the expectation is that members are involved in the work of at least one committee. Committee assignments should take into account both the organization’s needs and members’ expertise.
Have your committee chairs welcome new members with projects ready to go. After you have already put in the necessary work of onboarding, this will come at the perfect time when they are eager to get to work. Lisa shared that committee chairs should check in often and follow up with committee members to make sure that projects are progressing. Connecting at the committee level and the full board level helps new members feel grounded and valued.
Are you rethinking your board processes? I would love to hear about your plans and how I could help. You can read more about my board engagement workshop here.