5.9 Insider newsletter: short and sweet

The insider newsletter is a way for an ED to keep her relationship with her Board…

Warmed up.

Why is there a need for this? If your Board meets for two hours a month that’s 24 hours over the course of a year. Not much time.

And if the Board cancels the August meeting “because everyone is on vacation,” and cancels the December meeting “because the holidays are so busy,” that means 20 hours a year.

And if a Board member misses two meetings, now contact time is down to 16 hours, or the length of two work days out of an entire year.

And if Board meetings are filled with reports, that doesn’t leave much time for the ED to build a relationship with each of the Board members.

Why does this matter?

You want Board members to know you and appreciate you and be on your side. You want them to be your advocate.

If they only spend time with you in meetings where you’re talking about problems and crises, they might begin to see you as a problem-person, even if in the end you handle those problems really well.

When it’s time to do strategic planning, you want Board members to have respect for you and listen to your ideas and take your proposals seriously.

When it comes time for your annual evaluation you want Board members to see you as someone who is successful and upbeat.

And if, god forbid, Board member decides he doesn’t like you and comes after you, you want to have a strong relationship with the rest of the Board members so they’ll stand by you and defend you.

I’ve known many situations where an ED needed support from her Board and didn’t get it, because they were essentially strangers to her and to the work.

So I recommend that…

You make sure to build into each Board meeting, time to show off the successes of your organization’s work.

You make time to develop a positive relationship with each of your Board members by calling them, taking them to lunch, asking them to give you their best thinking one-to-one on critical issues.

And I recommend that you set up an “Insider Newsletter.”

Here’s how it works…

It’s an email.

You keep it short. Maybe only 2-3 sentences. Sometimes a little longer if you have a really good story to tell.

You use the same subject line on every one. Like: “Insider Newsletter” or “Top of the news from the Teen Action Program” or “Sound bite from the Teen Action Program.” Whenever Board members see that subject line they know it will be a quick read and a fun read, so they’ll click on it first.

What’s the content?

Only good news or thank yous.

For example…

We got our major grant renewed this afternoon. And the foundation increased the amount by $100,000! The foundation president called personally with the news and said, “Year after year you guys knock our socks off!”

I so wish you could have been on that call with me. Have an extra dessert tonight to celebrate.

Or…

Last night Board members Frank and Janice went out to meet with a possible new donor and came back with a check for $5,000. Congratulations to them both!