Hi, Marilyn:
In my experience as a senior staff member at several institutions in both U.S. and Canada, strong board members are offered committee chair positions to start them up the leadership ladder to vice-chair and then chair. People who are interested in joining the board can be offered seats on committees as a trial run and get-to-know-you opportunity before they're offered a spot on the board. Good boards have strong committees because this keeps full board discussions brisk and effective, and boards can task committees to report back with recommendations. If people really want to get into details, they can get involved at the committee level, so that what comes before the board as a committee recommendation will be sound and well thought out. In my experience at least, if a board disagrees with its committee recommendations too often it's a sign of trouble. I've tended to keep standing committees to a minimum and recommend ad hoc committees, with defined terms of service, as required. The only board committee for which I've ever had a staff member as chair is a collections committee. Boards and committees both need term limits! (for eg, no more than two successive terms on, the one term off, then start again)
Hope this helps,
J
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John Summers
Manager, Heritage Services
Milton ON
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-12-2019 09:27 PM
From: Marilynn Havelka
Subject: Board Committees
I am interested in hearing from museums/galleries about committees of their board: How many and what are they; does the CAO / Director attend all committee meetings; is recruitment a challenge/finding the right skill set; is a board member automatically the chair of a committee. Any thoughts on committees of the board would be most welcome.
Thanks in advance
Marilynn
Marilynn Havelka
Chief Administrative Officer
Ruthven Park National Historic Site
243 Haldimand HWY 54, P.O. Box 610
Cayuga ON N0A1E0
Phone: 905-772-0560
Fax: 905-772-0561
marilynn@ruthvenpark.ca