HomeMy WebLinkAboutMicrosoft PowerPoint - Presentation April 12Ottawa Carleton DSB
Aligning Effective Board Governance and
Committee Structures and Purpose
Boards of Trustees are supposed to be the
ultimate guardians of institutional ethos and
organizational values.
Governance as Leadership
Goals for Tonight
■ i. Share results of trustee feedback on committees
■ 2. Engage in discussion re: model for Standing
Committee structures
■ 3. Develop some proposals for Board and /or COW
structure
Boards that are Smart and Healthy
■ Smart: Composed of people with individual
competence and collectively complement each
other's weaknesses as opposed to collective
incompetence.
■ Healthy: A high level of trust and honesty, clarity
around roles and the determination of members to
subordinate personal interests to serve the
interests of students and the district as a whole.
Jim Brown The Imperfect Board Member
Effective Governance
What is the Business of the Board?
Set direction
Approve
Deliberate
Decide
Consult
Allocate
Set policy
Monitor
Write
Administer
t•
Describe how
Reflection: Board Agenda and
Meeting Structure
■ What do you most value about your board
meetings currently?
■ What is most disappointing about your board
meetings?
■ What should not be a part of your board meetings?
■ Provide 2 concrete and doable changes which
would make your meetings better?
The Board: Agenda Possibilities
■Regular Board meetings
■Committee of the Whole? ?
Key Board Functions
■ 1. Covering the Basics: The Board's
Fiduciary Role
■ 2. Big Picture Thinking: The Board's
Strategic Role
■ 3. Continuous Improvement: The Board's
Generative Role
■ 4. Promoting Public Education: The
Board's Co- creative Role
Agenda Examples
Exercise: Creating a "Doable"
Board Agenda Template
■ Work in teams of three.
■ Consider what you articulated as valuable.
■ Create an agenda template which
demonstrates what is most valuable.
Regular Board Meeting
Role of Committees
■ Helps the Board do its job, reinforces the wholeness of the board's job.
Never interferes with delegation from the Board to the CEO.
■ Assists by preparing policy alternatives and implications for board
deliberation.
■ Not connected to operations.
■ May not speak or act for the board except when formally given such
authority for specific and time - limited purposes.
■ No authority over staff.
■ Should be used sparingly and ordinarily in an ad -hoc capacity.
■ Unless specifically defined, has no authority to commit funds or
resources on behalf of the board.
Must, Should, Could and Should
Not: General Feedback
■ Hope there sufficient common ground amongst
Trustees to significantly streamline our committee
process.
■ a mechanism to engage the non - voting members
of our committees, sooner rather than later
■ agenda management and confining our meetings
to matters that are properly within the Board's
purview as the governing body.
■ leadership opportunities for trustees, and more
effective mechanisms for public commentary.
■ oversight (high level)
■ ombudsperson role / court of appeal / agent of
last resort
■ we are entrusted to always keep in mind the
bigger picture when we make our seemingly small
decisions as those decisions can affect a
community and society in general.
■ always making decisions with a high level of
integrity and for the greater good.
■ The generative role is one that most fun and interesting.
Boards should be spending time looking at what is possible.
What could we do if we didn't have any restraints? What is
the ideal? How would we get there?
■ We need to reconcile the tension between those who believe
that trustees are to have their personal platforms and those
who believe that we are not politicians at all. We are a
governing Board with duties under the Act. There is no room
or role for personal platforms.
■ Individual trustee motions should be carefully thought out
and planned. Otherwise, they take an inordinate amount of
time to no advantage or gain for students.
■ Behaviour is our biggest issue.
■ The best decisions are reached by consensus if at all
possible. That often means compromise.
■ preferable to shift to a Committee of the Whole structure, and
use "work sessions" to do the broader exploratory and
explanatory discussions as background preparation for
issues coming to Committee of the Whole.
Must, Should, Could and Should
Not: Committees
■ 1. Board
■ 2. Standing
■ 3. Statutory
■ 4. Special Purpose
■ 5.Ad Hoc
■ 6. Advisory
■ 7. Other
Standing Committees
Who sits on Committees?
Decision - Making and Governance