Board Governance Is No Laughing Matter

It is a good thing I don’t work in corporate life anymore because my butt is not trained for it.  I spent all day, like more than all day from 7:30 this morning to 5:30 tonight sitting in a hotel meeting room at the National Association of Corporate Boards – day of non profit board training.  It was really good information, presented in a mainly good format. With the exception of one joke told by the host Chuck as a way of stretching an introduction so that grown ups could figure out how to make the technology work, my day lacked comedy and exercise.

I have forgotten how uncomfortable those ballroom chairs are and those skinny conference tables have legs that prevent me from crossing mine.  I was fairly well behaved, for me at least.  I hardly ever spoke out of turn and only during one presentation did I call the presenters out for anything.  The real sizzler was ending with two accountants talking to us about the form 990 and new IRS regulations.  Can you say glaze over?

The best and worst part about the conference is that now I have a list two arms long of things I need to do on the boards I am on.  Well, I can do them on the one I chair and suggest them on my other one.  Nobody is going to be happy with me.  That is unless we face a crisis that we are actually prepared for because of checking off an item written on my arm, like crisis management, succession planning or foundation creation.

So now I need to go write up all my lessons learned so I can get my board cohorts excited about the work that lies ahead.  It’s sad that board governance has become such a big passion of mine.  Long gone are the glib days of planning parties and writing manuscripts with my college friend Hugh for a book called “Excuses, excuses.”

Now I’m all about long-range vision and strategic plans.  At least I still run meetings with their fair share of jokes and witty remarks.  I wonder how those will read back in minutes?  Now that I have learned from the accountants about the importance of board minutes documenting CEO compensation rational discussions I’m not sure the IRS would appreciate my sense of humor.  I just hope to follow all the rules.  Orange may be the new black, but I don’t want to pay for my volunteer non-profit board work in jail.