Board Governance: Advancing Your Mission through Volunteer Leadership

On November 17, ACN members and board and staff members of nonprofits gathered at the Cornerstone Center on North Wells for a program that offered insights and concrete examples of pitfalls and successes in board governance.  ACN board member Kathryn Vanden Berk, who organized the program, discussed the primary duties of board members: loyalty – the commitment to work for the good of the organization; care – the need to do all that a reasonable person would expect to be done; and obedience – the commitment to fulfill the organization’s mission. Situations discussed included a treasurer’s failure to pay withholding taxes, a circumstance that went unnoticed by a board that failed to exercise due care;