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The CEO’s Board Management Toolkit
Skill Builder

Resources Roundup: Board Management

In this article:
These resources from ASAE will help you work with your board effectively.

Books and Research

Learn about larger trends affecting association governance and volunteer leaders

ASAE ForesightWorks

ASAE’s future-focused environmental-scanning research initiative identifies 50 drivers of change important to associations. Each is described in an action brief that examines its implications and offers ideas for steps associations can take to respond to the trend. The drivers most pertinent to board management include:

  • A World Reshaped by COVID. This new action brief provides insights and strategies for navigating the uncertainty and pandemic-related shifts that will last through the early 2020s.
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This action brief, updated in 2021, explores why inclusion and equity efforts should be treated as a systemic priority, supported by a new generation of tools and processes.
  • Volunteering. Cultural, demographic, and technological changes are altering volunteer expectations and experiences. This action brief looks at how associations and nonprofits are experimenting with more flexible roles and structures to support collaboration and contribution.

Benchmarking in Association Management, Policies and Procedures, Vol. 2 (2018)

Compare your association’s practices against others of similar size and type. This resource focuses on key considerations in five functional areas of association management, including governance. The data, collected from responses to the ASAE Research Foundation’s Benchmarking in Association Management surveys, gives you a firsthand look at what other organizations are doing in those areas.

Race for Relevance: 5 Radical Changes for Associations, 10th Anniversary Edition (2021)

By Harrison Coerver and Mary Byers, CAE

An ASAE bestseller updated for a pandemic-altered world, this new edition serves as a guidebook for association staff and volunteers leading and making decisions for their organizations in a dramatically changed environment. Practical tools like worksheets, checklists, and case studies help you kick off thought-provoking discussions.

Recruit the Right Board: Proven Processes for Selecting Critical Competencies (2019)

By Mark Engle, FASAE, CAE, and William Brown

This book provides CEOs with a framework for recruitment, nomination, and selection processes to build a board with the right mix of skills, knowledge, and other characteristics to perform optimally.

Learning Opportunities

Professional development suited for CEOs and their boards

CEO Symposium

This program provides an opportunity for CEOs and their board officers to define annual priorities and determine how to work better together. The two-day, in-person symposium also explores challenges facing contemporary leaders and highlights the value of informed policy and strategy as primary tools of the leadership team.

Exceptional Boards

For CEOs and elected board and committee officers, this intensive workshop provides participants with the insights and resources they need to build a high-performing board that understands its role, fulfills its responsibility, demonstrates visionary leadership, and leads the organization to new heights.

Executive Leadership Forum

This two-day program offers a highly interactive learning experience for senior-level leaders seeking intellectually demanding and open-ended learning. Participants will be inspired and challenged by thought leaders from a variety of professions and backgrounds.

Related Articles

Additional must-read content from asaecenter.org and associationsnow.com

How CEOs Can Help Make Boards Strategic

Disrupting the pathway to board service has complicated boards’ understanding of strategy. A look at ways CEOs can help their boards maintain a strategic focus.

Four Tips for Helping Boards Navigate Tech

Gaps in board members’ technical knowledge can get in the way of good decision-making. Two tech experts explain how to help board members stay focused on strategy when the conversation turns to technology.

How CEOs Can Guide the Board Selection Process

Board nomination and selection can be a lengthy and complex undertaking. A study from the ASAE Research Foundation highlights how CEOs and other staff can support the process for better outcomes.

How to Educate Your Board on the Value of Government Relations

Since many association budgets are slimmer after COVID-19, many program areas are trying to show their value. Government relations is more complex than whether a bill passed or failed, so it’s important to educate boards about the value of GR.

Prevent Three Common Board Communication Mistakes

Poor communication can make boards less effective. Fostering a solid structure can help board members communicate better with each other and with the membership at large.

Samantha Whitehorne

Samantha Whitehorne is editor-in-chief of Associations Now.

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