Pub. 2 2012-2013 Issue 2

14 continued on page 14 Managing v. Governing Boards In the beginning phase of a charter school, board member responsibilities might include managing the day to day affairs of the school. They can be found painting walls, responding to emails, answering the phones and playing com- puter tech support to employees. However, once your school’s leadership is in place, you should plan together how success will be achieved and measured. Consider writing up job descriptions for your man- agement team and for each member of the board. That way, it is clear who is responsible for each piece of the puzzle needed to create a successful school. Bylaws Bylaws are extremely important to an organization. However, be careful to not spend the majority of the board’s time re-writing your own bylaws. Hours can be spent and wasted in trying to determine exact verbiage and what sounds best. Why reinvent the wheel? I suggest you reach out to another school and ask to see what they have written. Bylaws can be shared and a more established school is usually willing to share ideas with a fellow charter school. Never be afraid to ask for help. Divided or Split Board If your board is diverse, it is a healthy board. Recruit board members with differ- ent backgrounds. Do not look for people who are most like you. In meetings, keep an open mind and listen to all points of view. Once the vote is held, if you are in the minority, do not take it personally. Accept the board’s collective will and move forward. Keep in mind that most everyone has the best of intentions, or they would not be serving on the board. Every vote counts and should be respected. Most importantly, remember it is possible to disagree without being disagreeable. A common mistake that I have seen and experienced for myself is that those in the minority may want to re-address the issue the following month in order to convince everyone else why they need to reconsider their vote. It is wise to place a general time frame on when an issue may be re-addressed or voted on again. If there is no time frame on when an item can be discussed again, you might be addressing dress code issues every board meeting, which would be a waste of your valuable time and energy. Live with the board’s collective will for at least 6 months. Otherwise, you will experience a nauseating cycle of déja vu. Time When you value your time and other people’s time, you will be more effective. Does your board have a regularly scheduled meeting time and date? How often do you meet? When is your agenda set and when do you receive the information you will need to make informed decisions? If you fail to prepare a proper agenda, then I suggest bringing a sleeping bag and/or caffeine. You will be in for a long night. I have found that if you schedule an opening and closing time to every board meeting, it keeps the governing body on task. Meetings with no defined time limits are less effective for two reasons. First, the beginning part of the meeting is much like a warm up exercise session. Everyone feels there is plenty of time to discuss items of business and are not focused on the tasks at hand. Second, by the end of a marathon If your board is diverse, it is a healthy board. Recruit board members with differ- ent backgrounds. Do not look for people who are most like you.