by Tina Falkner, AACRAO Vice President for Records and Academic Services; Director, Continuity and Compliance, University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
Each year, AACRAO elects new members to the Board of Directors (BOD). The BOD’s Governance Committee is charged with orienting new members to their service so they are ready to take office at the Annual meeting. One foundational aspect of orientation is creating an understanding and each member agreeing to a duty of care and a duty of loyalty. In essence, this means that each member of the BOD agrees to think collectively about what is best for AACRAO – the Association as a whole, its member institutions, and its individual members. Many new Board members are somewhat surprised that serving on the AACRAO board (as an incorporated entity) is very different than serving on the board of a state and regional association.
In addition to learning about these important duties, each newly elected BOD member is provided with several books that address aspects of serving on a BOD of non-profit organizations, ranging from understanding financial statements to how one evaluates the executive director’s performance (to everything in-between).
The orientation schedule extends over a four month period to allow each new member adequate time to become acquainted with not only the assigned readings, but the association's strategic plan, mission, charter and bylaws. Through monthly conference calls and two face-to-face meetings, new members are afforded the opportunity to create a positive culture of inquiry that both educates them and helps the association ensure operational and tactical matters are reviewed annually by other professionals in the field, with fresh eyes.
The face-to-face meetings are also a time where returning BOD members re-affirm their commitment to the duty of care and duty of loyalty. Additionally, the rich discussions that organically evolve from discussing the books are invaluable. It’s common for these discussions to result in more questions than answers that will then be woven into the BOD agenda for the coming year.
The three new BOD members, Jacquelyn “Jacqui” Elliot (VP for International Education), Meredith Braz (VP for Leadership and Management Development), and Scott Dittman (VP At Large) were very engaged in the orientation process and asked great and probing questions, listened carefully, asked for clarification, and proposed new ways to think about BOD service.
Jacqui Elliott said, “The new board member orientation was a valuable and productive time to not only become acquainted with the inner workings of AACRAO, but to forge new relationships and alliances with other board members in an effort to advance the mission and good work of AACRAO on behalf of its membership. What a rewarding experience.”
If you are interested in having the same rewarding experience, we encourage you to consider one of the upcoming openings on the BOD in the next year.