This half-day workshop is designed for Executive Directors to come with their board chairs and other members of the board.

This half-day workshop is designed for non-profit Executive Directors and CEOs to come with their board members, especially their board chairs. The purpose of the workshop is to enable board and staff members from the non-profits attending to create joint strategies to improve their leadership team’s functioning. Topics include dynamics of the CEO/Board Chair team, planning for CEO or Board leader transitions, carrying out strategic and business planning, tips for recruiting, engaging and retaining good board members and peer discussions about how to cultivate strong leaders in volunteer and board positions. 

Board / Executive Director Team. Presenters: Reagan Messer & Kurt Blomquist at MoCo Arts; Alec Doyle & Abi Abrash Walton at Colonial Performing Arts Center; Liz LaRose & Board member from Monadnock United Way

This peer-to-peer presentation includes a panel of Executive Director/Board Chair teams who will talk about how to build a strong leadership team and engage the audience in discussing some of the challenges experienced by nonprofit leaders. The presenters have experience in jointly raising money for their organizations, including major campaigns, and can talk about how they have worked together in various other capacities to broaden engagement in their organizations and inspire other board members to step up to the plate.

Succession-planning for board leadership and for the Executive Director. Presenter: Dan Smith, CEO, Keene YMCA

This session tackles the difficult subject of how to ensure successful transitions – succession planning – for the Executive Director and for key board positions. This can be a difficult topic to raise, as individuals in those positions may or may not be thinking of leaving the organization. But the board must ensure business continuity in the event that a key board or staff leader does move on, whether to take another position or retire, or because of ill health or other unexpected, sudden event. This session will help provide strategies about how to plan for these transitions and create a neutral way for conversations about them to begin.

Strategic and Business Plans: how do they differ and why do you really need both? Presenter: Lynn Post, Director, Empower Success Corps, Northern New England

Every organization needs to understand the needs of its clients or constituents, goals and strategies required to meet those needs, how that work will be carried out and resourced, and most importantly, what impact its work will have on the community. Strategic planning and business planning don’t have to be hard, and there are plenty of resources available to leaders looking to move forward strategically. This session will provide a framework to understand how to begin and what to expect from these two critical processes.

Engaging Board members: recruitment, education and orientation, retention and long-term engagement strategies. Presenter: Maryann LaCroix Lindberg, CFRE, MBA, President, Philanthropy Resource Group

Boards always need good volunteer leaders who are willing to step up and serve. Whether the organization needs roll-up-the-sleeves board members or high-level strategic thinkers (or a combination of these), understanding how to attract, educate, inspire and retain really good board members is an essential skill. This session will provide some great tips on how to go about building a strong board and ensuring that your board’s culture and protocols support a dynamic, productive leadership team.

Facilitated Round-Tables: Cultivating leadership in board and volunteer positions. Facilitator: Ellen Avery, Exeuctive Director, CVTC

The final session will be an actively-facilitated set of round-tables that will allow participants to share with each other ideas for empowering boards to fulfill the leadership roles needed by the organization. Successful strategies and best practices are already being implemented by many area organizations. This session will help attendees come away with new ideas for inspiring strong leadership among those vested with responsibility for the future of the non-profit organization.

Pricing:

$65 for one; $30 for each additional person from the same organization

** If you are registering 5 or more from your organization, please contact [email protected] for discounted pricing and information.

Schedule:

8:00 – 8:30 Coffee/Networking

8:30 – 8:35 Welcome and Introduction to Day

8:35 – 9:30 Topic 1: Board / Executive Director Team. Presenters: Reagan Messer & Kurt Blomquist at MOCO Arts; Alec Doyle & Abi Abrash Walton at Colonial Performing Arts Center; Liz LaRose & Board member from Monadnock United Way

9:30 – 10:15 Topic 2: Succession-planning for board leadership and for the ED. Presenter: Dan Smith, CEO, Keene YMCA

10:15 – 11:00 Topic 3: Strategic and Business Plans: how do they differ and why do you really need both? Presenter: Lynn Post, Director, NNE Office, Empower Success Corps

11:00 – 11:45 Topic 4: Engaging Board members: recruitment, education and orientation, retention and long-term engagement strategies. Presenter: Maryann LaCroix Lindberg, CFRE, MBA, President, Philanthropy Resource Group

11:45 – 12:25 Facilitated Round-Tables: Cultivating leadership in board and volunteer positions. Facilitator: Ellen Avery, Exeuctive Director, CVTCNH

12:25 – 12:30 Thank you and Wrap Up