Board Best Practices

Most unproductive board meetings are not a people problem or a governance-structure problem. They are an agenda problem, and the patterns repeat across credit unions, nonprofits, Crown corporations, and private companies. Here are the five…
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Most boards never think about quorum until the morning a meeting nearly falls apart over it. Someone counts heads, realizes two directors are out sick, and the room goes quiet while everyone tries to remember…
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It is 9:05 AM. The meeting was supposed to start at 9:00. Three directors are stuck in traffic, one is travelling, and one resigned last week. The corporate secretary counts heads: four directors present on…
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Your board has not met in one room for years. People dial in from a home office, a hotel, a parking lot before the next thing. The meeting still happens. The decisions still get made….
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A board cannot make a valid decision unless enough directors are in the room. That minimum is your quorum, and in Canada it is not something you simply decide for yourselves. It is set by…
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Once you know which statute governs your board, the next question is the one the statute does not answer: what number should you actually write into your bylaws? The law gives you a default and…
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Free download A free, editable conflict of interest policy template for US nonprofits and Canadian registered charities, paired with a US + Canada compliance guide. The template is a fillable skeleton; this page is the…
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Free download A fillable agenda template for US 501(c)(3) organizations and Canadian registered charities, with placeholders for the compliance items that Form 990 and the CRA’s T3010 expect your board to address. This template is…
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