10 New Year's Resolutions for Your Board

1. We will review the stated purpose statements in our articles of incorporation and bylaws to make sure they are consistent with our publicized mission statements.
2. We will have our bylaws reviewed by a lawyer if they have not been legally reviewed in the past five years.
3. We will meet as often as necessary to provide strong oversight of the organization and to meet our obligations as directors.
4. We will each commit to attending a majority of the meetings or accept another, more appropriate role with the organization.
5. We will require our executive to provide us with relevant information (including financials) at least five days prior to any meeting so we can review them in advance and make our meetings more productive.
6. We will seek ways to improve how we further our mission and not just allow things to run the way they've always run.
7. We will consider how to effectively collaborate, advocate and lobby (yes, we can!) to better serve our intended beneficiaries; then, we'll implement our ideas and openly share our results (even if they don't pan out).
8. We will adopt or affirm a conflict of interest policy to help ensure that we are always acting in the best interests of the organization and in furtherance of the mission.
9. We will adopt other governance-related policies, not simply because they are referenced in the Redesigned Form 990, but because they will help us do our jobs better.
10. We will hold ourselves accountable for implementing these resolutions.