Governance Process

POLICY TITLE: GP10 - Investment in Governance

The Board will invest in its governance capacity.

1. Board skills, methods, and supports will be sufficient to assure governing with excellence.
   1. New Board members shall receive a complete orientation to ensure familiarity with the organization’s issues and structure, and the Board’s process of governance.
   2. Board members shall have ongoing opportunity for continued training and education to enhance their governance capabilities.
   3. Outreach mechanisms will be used as needed to ensure the board’s ability to listen to owner viewpoints and values.
   4. Outside monitoring assistance will be arranged so that the boar can exercise sufficient control over organizational performance. This includes, but is not limited to fiscal audit.
2. Costs will be prudently incurred, though not at the expense of endangering the development and maintenance of superior governance capability.
   1. The Board will establish, prior to the operational budget cycle, and be accountable for, an annual budget for its own governance functions, which shall include funds for meeting costs, Board member attendance at conferences and conventions, improvement of its governance function, costs of fiscal audit and any other outside monitoring assistance required, and costs of methods such as focus groups, surveys and opinion analyses to ensure the Board’s ability to listen to owner viewpoints and values.
3. The Board will establish governance process policies that will serve as measurable standards against which the Board’s performance can be evaluated.
   1. Under the leadership of the chairperson, at least annually the Board will conduct a self-evaluation. As a result of this evaluation, the Board will establish a governance action plan with specific goals and objectives for improvement of identified areas.
   2. The Board will monitor its adherence to its own Governance Process policies regularly. Upon the choice of the Board, any policy can be monitored at any time. However, at minimum, the Board will review the policies every three years, and monitor its own adherence to them annually.

Date Approved: 19 Jun 2007

Date Revised: