Critical Responsibilities of the Board

1. Ask Questions and Focus on Vision.
2. Board determines the organization's mission and purpose. Create and clarify the intent, define, record in writing. Then the Board must align all chapter activity with the mission, monitor progress, re-visit, and re-writes as needed.
3. The Board assures effective planning is done and done well. The Board's role is to ask good questions. Does the mission statement need fine tuning? What are the costs of our programs? Do these numbers make sense? Should some programs be operated at a loss? Do new programs require staff? How will we pay for new programs? Are there realistic financial projections for projects.
4. The Board insures there is adequate money and other resuouces to do the work of the chapter.
5. The Board sees that resources are managed properly. Critical in this is reviewing the annual budget in detail. You may wish an annual audit by an outside accounting firm (not a volunteer). Auditors are directly reponsible to the Board. Insist on adequate financial safeguards, make certain there is adequate insurance in place. Make certain there is a balance of volunteer labor and staff labor if you have paid staff.
6. Board maintains oversight of programs and services. Are they consistent with the mission of the chapter? Make decisions about competing priorities.
7. The Board is a link in creating positive public relations. The Board serves as ambassadors. Decide who will serve as the spokesperson for the chapter. No Board member speaks for the Board without first being authorized to do so.
8. The Board assures legal and ethical compliance. Protect the chapter from legal challenges from external and internal sources. Establish compliance programs, i.e., anti-trust compliance, conflict of interest policy, IRS reporting, etc.
9. The Board recruits new members to the Board and evaluates its performance.