National Volunteer Fire Council November 1, 2013 Presented by - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

National Volunteer Fire Council

Presented by Bryan R. Cole Professor Emeritus Texas A&M University

November 1, 2013

Bryan R. Cole

• Dr. Bryan R. Cole is Professor Emeritus of Educational Administration in the Department of Educational

Administration and Human Resource Development at Texas A&M University. During his 41 year career at Texas A&M University, Dr. Cole served in numerous administrative and professorial capacities including Assistant and Associate Dean of the College of Education, Department Head of the Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development and as Assistant Vice President for Quality Leadership. Dr. Cole's professional interests include continuous improvement in educational systems, educational law and educational administration and he is a frequent speaker and consultant on planning and managing complex educational systems and implementation of continuous improvement in educational systems. Dr. Cole taught graduate classes in education management, education law and managing and improving complex educational systems and has provided training in this area to over 9000 faculty, staff and administrators since 1993. Dr. Cole has chaired to completion more than 50 doctoral students, published over 40 refereed and non-refereed publications, had over 275 international, national and state invited presentations, generated over $1,000,000 in outside funds and consulted with over 50 institutions of higher education, school districts and other organizations. He served as the Director of the Summer Seminar on Academic Administration for twenty-five years training over 1000 higher education administrators representing more than 150 institutions. Dr. Cole is a recipient of the Texas A&M University Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching for 1979, 1994 and 2011. Dr. Cole served as the Coordinator and Facilitator of the Bonfire 2002 Planning Committee (2000-2002) and served as Co-Chair (with President Bowen Loftin) of the Texas A&M University Vision 2020 Mid-Term Review (2010-2011) and has facilitated significant planning and improvement efforts throughout the University as well as for a number of non-profit

• rganizations. Dr. Cole currently serves on the Board of Directors for St. Joseph Health System and the Baptist

University of the Americas and previously served as a Board Member for the Quality Texas Foundation for seven years and the Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Education Coordinating Board for six years including two years as chairman. Dr. Cole is a retired Colonel from both active duty and the U. S. Army Reserve that included tours of duty in Germany, Vietnam and the U.S. Dr. Cole received his B. S. from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and his M.Ed. and Ph.D. in Educational Administration (Higher Education) from Texas A&M University. Dr. Cole is married to Wanda Kay Cole, his wife of 46 years. They have two adult children, Keith and Allison and two

• grandchildren. Dr. Cole has served as a Deacon at First Baptist Church Bryan since 1983.

Overview of today’s session: To provide an opportunity for the Board to enhance its leadership skills and understanding

• f its role and responsibilities in coming together

as one voice for the volunteer Fire/EMS/Rescue

• rganizations of the United States.

KEY Take A-ways from Today’s Session …

* Governance performance matters. It has a significant impact on

• rganizational success and community

and the stakeholders it serves.

The purpose of the National Volunteer Fire Council shall be: to formulate and promulgate programs useful to the volunteer fire, emergency medical or rescue services of the United States; to represent the interests of the member state fire, emergency medical or rescue organizations to the Congress of the United States and with the various federal agencies involved with the preservation of life and property; and to do all other things designed to better preserve the lives and property of the citizens of the United States, thereby fostering good will and fellowship among the members of the fire/emergency services in the United States.

NVFC MISSION To provide a unified voice for volunteer Fire/EMS

• rganizations.

This Mission will be accomplished by:

• Representing the interests of the volunteer fire,

emergency medical or rescue organizations at the U.S. congress and federal agencies

• Promoting the interests of the state and local
• rganizations at the national level
• Promoting and providing education and training

for the volunteer fire, emergency medical or rescue organizations

• Providing representation on national standards

setting committees and projects

• Gathering information from and disseminating

information to the volunteer fire, emergency medical or rescue organizations

KEY Take A-ways from Today’s Session …

In today’s ever increasing complex environment, it is critical that Boards understand their role as “Strategic Assets” to their organization.

Everything you do as a Board should keep your mission and purpose uppermost in your

• mind. They are the reason for your being!!!

Jeffery Sonnefeld in his article, “What Makes Great Boards Great” (Harvard Board Review)

• bserved:

…”What distinguishes exemplary boards from poor, or just good, ones is they have great cultures.”

Common Purpose

…”What distinguishes exemplary boards from poor, or just good, ones is they have great cultures.”

 Respect for Board and Staff alike in all meetings and associations  Divergent Thinking  Challenging premises and assumptions on which proposals/plans are based  Asking probing/uncomfortable questions  Tolerating/encouraging respectful dissent  Rigorous discussion and dissent  Not “rubber stamping” management decisions

Role and Responsibilities

• f the

Board of Directors

• f a

Non-Profit Organization

Sources : http://smallbusiness.chron.com/roles-responsibilities-board-directors-nonprofit-2180.html and Carver, J. and Carver, M., “Basic Principles of Policy Governance.” San Francisco: Josey-Bass, 1996.

Strategic Guidance

The board creates and periodically updates a strategic plan to carry out the organization mission and goals. The staff then creates an implementation/operational plan based on this strategic guidance.

Excerpts from NVFC Strategic Plan 2012-2015

Goal One Objectives: Serve  Legislative  Standards  Codes  Collaboration  Internal Goal Two Objectives: Advocate  Membership  Outreach Goal Three: Educate

EXCELLENCE IS A JOURNEY!!!

“Every organization that strives for excellence must define the goal and map the journey.”

Len Barry Distinguished Professor of Marketing

• M. B. Zale Chair in Retailing and Marketing Leadership

Texas A&M University

Management Lessons from the Mayo Clinic - Inside one

• f the World’s Most Admired Service Organizations

There are differences in these two sets of

• responsibilities. For instance, today’s business

exists because of decisions made in the past and it cannot be altered in any significant way in the immediate time frame. That is why it is today’s business! The Role and Importance of Planning Every manager has two sets of responsibilities. One set involves managing today’s business. The other set involves managing tomorrow’s business.

The Role and Importance of Planning On the other hand, tomorrow’s business depends exclusively on decisions that are made now (or not made now). In contrast with today’s business which cannot be changed, tomorrow’s business can be shaped into almost anything that is desired.

Strategic Guidance

The board must recognize and intentionally carry out its duty as a “Strategic Asset” to the organization. This means that Boards spend the majority of their time in proactively visioning, discerning, setting and monitoring strategic direction – not simply reacting to

• perational management reports.

Oversight Role (20%) Foresight Role (80%)

Primary purpose…

• Past and present
• Efficiency
• Preventing problems

(reactive)

• Inspection/compliance

Primary purpose…

• Future
• Effectiveness
• Seizing opportunities

(proactive)

• Quality design

Strategic Guidance

In carrying out its duty as a “Strategic Asset,” , the board will use various historical data as well as conduct a comprehensive environmental scan (e.g. PEOST/SWOT analysis) to determine the anticipated context (KEY Environmental Factors) within which the organization will be operating in the next several

• years. From this analysis, the board identifies
• KEY challenges,
• KEY stakeholders,
• KEY programs and services
• KEY systems and processes and
• KEY goals for the selected timeline.

Financial Oversight

Regulated by the IRS, a nonprofit organization must follow many guidelines in order to maintain its tax- exempt status. The board of directors directs the senior management team, including the executive director and controller, in adhering to these regulations. Board members have a fiduciary duty to the organization. They are responsible for approving budgets and ensuring that the organization is being run within its means. The board also helps to establish financial controls that can include such things as setting up divisions of duties and scheduling audits of the organization's records and financial practices. In addition to budgets and audits, a board monitors an

• rganization's investments including its capital budget,

any endowments and reserve funds.

Fundraising

One of the most important roles of the board

• f directors of a nonprofit organization

consists of raising funds to use in accomplishing the business mission. Fundraising events/campaigns and donations

• ften comprise the majority of income for

nonprofit organizations. These may be supplemented by grants or other sources of funds.

Legal And Ethical Integrity

Board members have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure the organization follows the legal and ethical standards for business in general and those unique to nonprofit organizations. Strong integrity and sound business practices will enhance the public image of the organization and work to further its cause.

Executive Staff and Board Member Selection

The board must select an appropriate chief executive, delineate the responsibilities

• f the chief executive and

periodically evaluate his/her performance. They should support the chief executive morally and professionally to augment his/her efforts to achieve the

• rganization’s mission, social

and business goals.

Distinguishing Between Governance and Management

Situational Assessment

Mission and Core Values Vision Strategic Goals Objectives

Management’s Work:

“How”

Board and Management’s Work:

“What”

Monitoring Progress Overseeing Process and Participants Identifying Critical Strategic Issues and Discussing Alternatives

Boards should adopt the N-I-F-O Principle Distinguishing Between Governance and Management

Nose In – Fingers Out

The board should at least annually conduct a self- assessment of its performance and opportunities for

• improvement. Intentional steps should be taken to

improve the performance of the board in the same light as it expects the organization they are serving to improve.

Board Self-Assessment and Improvement

Structure

• Organizational and Board structures
• Committee structures
• Role, responsibility and authority clarification

Composition

• Size, competencies, terms/limits

Functioning

• Recruitment, selection, orientation, education, goal-

setting, and evaluation

• Meeting frequency, length, agendas and culture

Policies

• Compensation, conflicts, audit, compliance, etc.

Board Self-Assessment Topics

Oversee Programs

Board members oversee programs associated with the nonprofit

• rganization. Organization staff carries out daily program operations,

but board members exercise fiduciary oversight. They must protect the funds and assets of the nonprofit business by ensuring their proper use. They monitor the effectiveness of the organization’s mission, programs and determine whether they are consistent with the ultimate cause the

• rganization supports and are meeting key stakeholder needs and

expectations.

Dedicated Involvement

To properly carry out their roles and responsibilities, all board member and the chief executive must commit to a high level of involvement in the organizations operations. A seat on the board of a nonprofit organization requires true dedication and passion for the cause. Unlike board member positions in some for-profit organizations, nonprofit board members work diligently, sometimes for long hours, to further community awareness and their impact on the social causes they seek to advance.

Public Relations

Members of the board must use their business and social connections to build interest in the organization and its efforts. In addition, board members are expected to raise awareness of their cause through various marketing channels as well as increasing public support of the organization and its mission.

Leadership Principles of Policy Governance

Principle 1: The Trust in Trusteeship Policy Governance recognizes foremost that boards exist to lead the

• rganization on behalf of some identifiable ownership to which they

are answerable. (volunteer fire, emergency medical and rescue personnel) Simply put, the board governs on behalf of persons who are not seated at the board table. This is a critical point as determining the

• rganization’s “ownership” necessitates that the board govern with

that ownership in mind.

Carver, J. and Carver, M., “Basic Principles of Policy Governance.” San Francisco: Josey-Bass, 1996.

Leadership Principles of Policy Governance

Principle 2: The Board Speaks with One Voice or Not at All If the board is to make authoritative decisions – if it is to lead- then on a given issue it must have a single voice. The strength of this single voice arises from the diversity of viewpoints and intentions each board member brings to the board as well as from the way the board focuses multiplicity into unity. The power of boards of directors, therefore, is not as individuals, but as a group entrusted by their owners with the authority to lead the organization.

Leadership Principles of Policy Governance

Principle 3: Board Decisions Should Predominantly Be Policy Decisions Policies represent the value or perspective that underlies action. Policies embody the board’s beliefs, commitments, values and

• vision. The board members’ collective

philosophy, then, should be central to board policy.

Leadership Principles of Policy Governance

Principle 3: Board Decisions Should Predominantly Be Policy Decisions Policy Governance requires boards to debate and write down their important values and to do so in a carefully crafted

• way. The board should address the

largest or broadest values in four categories:

• Ends
• Executive Limitations
• Board-staff Linkage
• Governance Process

“Hey, you’re in my space!”

Leadership Principles of Policy Governance

Principle 4: Boards Should Formulate Policy

by Determining the Broadest Values Before Progressing to More Narrow Ones Policies may be about very important, large issues, or they may be about less important, smaller issues. A “large” policy decision will contain all smaller, related policies. The board can establish control over large issues in the four categories, and then, knowing that it is in control of the big picture, decide subsequently how much further detail it wishes to go into.

NVFC Code of Ethics

Leadership Principles of Policy Governance

Principle 4: Boards Should Formulate Policy by Determining the Broadest Values Before Progressing to More Narrow Ones When the board performs its job appropriately, then delegation can be defined as (1) the designation of parameters within which other persons are not only empowered to act, but are required to act, and (2) the designation of who the other persons are. The board should grant the CEO authority to make all further choices as long as they are “within” the board’s ends and executive limitation policies.

Leadership Principles of Policy Governance Principle 5: A Board Should Define and Delegate Rather Than React and Ratify

Most boards are accustomed to approving plans brought to them by staff. The very act of approving forces boards to become entangled in trivia. Many times, to avoid feeling like “rubber stamps’ boards “nit-pick.” Approving staff plans places board members in a reactive position. Rather, the board should monitor plans by comparing plans to pre-stated criteria which differs from board approval.

Leadership Principles of Policy Governance

Principle 5: A Board Should Define and Delegate Rather Than React and Ratify Boards should spend the vast majority

• f their time on proactively addressing

changing environmental factors and strategic decisions that facilitate mission and goal accomplishment. A large majority of routine business can be taken care of by “consent agenda.” A good rule of thumb is 80% strategic and 20% operational.

Technology

Leadership Principles of Policy Governance

Principle 6: Ends Determination Is the Pivotal Duty of Governance The justification of any organization lies in what difference it can make. A non-profit organization exists so that the world in which it operates can be a better place. The “ends” of an organization are the reasons for its

• existence. It is obvious that careful, wise selection of “ends” is the highest

calling of trustee leadership.

Leadership Principles of Policy Governance

Principle 6: Ends Determination Is the Pivotal Duty of Governance Focusing on ends ensures that the board tackles the difficult questions by mobilizing board time, mechanics and concern around what good is to be done for whom and at what cost.

Leadership Principles of Policy Governance

Principle 7: The Board’s Best Control Over Staff Is to Limit, Not Prescribe The distinction between ends and means will enable the board to free itself from trivia, to delegate clearly and powerfully, and to turn its attention to the large issues of ends. Quite apart from ends, then, the board is also accountable for the way the organization conducts

• itself. The organization’s conduct, activities,

methods, processes and practices are its “means” rather than its ends.

Leadership Principles of Policy Governance

Principle 7: The Board’s Best Control Over Staff Is to Limit, Not Prescribe Board means relate to how the board will organize, structure, and conduct itself in order to accomplish its job. Staff means, then, are the various arrangements and actions needed to accomplish the ends or safeguard the

• perations that produce them.

It is important to understand that budgets, programs, personnel policies, buildings, equipment and a host of other matters which traditionally consume board time are staff means issues.

Leadership Principles of Policy Governance

Principle 8: A Board Must Explicitly Design Its Own Programs and Services It is in the policy category of governance process that the board states what it expects of itself – the board “means” of how it will conduct itself and perform its

• wn job.
• Who does the board represent and how

will it maintain contact with this constituency

• What are the programs and services

that the board itself expects to produce (e.g. Advocate for key stakeholders)

Leadership Principles of Policy Governance

Principle 8: A Board Must Explicitly Design Its Own Programs and Services

• How will the board define the role of the chair, and how does it

delegate to the chair?

• Under what circumstances will the board use committees?

In governance process policies, the board commits itself to use committees only when they are necessary to help the board get its job done, never to help the staff with theirs.

Leadership Principles of Policy Governance

Principle 9: A Board Must Forge a Linkage with Management That is Both Empowering and Safe No single relationship in the organization is as important as that between the board and its chief executive officer. This relationship, well conceived and clearly articulated, can set the stage for effective governance and management. The use of the “ends, means and executive limitations” builds the framework that enables this relationship to flourish. The board and CEO constitute a leadership team!

Leadership Principles of Policy Governance

Principle 10: Performance of the CEO Must Be Monitored Rigorously, but Only Against Policy Criteria When the board has told its CEO to achieve certain ends without violating certain executive limitations, monitoring performance becomes no less – and no more- than checking actual performance against these two sets of expectations. Good monitoring is necessary if a board is to relax about the present and get on with the future.

KEY Take A-ways from Today’s Session …

* Governance performance matters. It has a significant impact on

• rganizational success and community

and the stakeholders it serves.

KEY Take A-ways from Today’s Session …

In today’s ever increasing complex environment, it is critical that Boards understand their role as “Strategic Assets” to their organization.

http://www.nonprofitboards.com/ http://www.councilofnonprofits.org/resources/resources-topic/boards- governance/roles-and-responsibilities-nonprofit-boards

Resources

http://nonprofitrescue.com/Board_Roles_and_Responsibilities.htm http://foundationcenter.org/getstarted/tutorials/establish/board_dev.html Carver, J. and Carver, M., “Basic Principles of Policy Governance.” San Francisco: Josey-Bass, 1996.

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