Democratizing Boards – a Conversation

In the world of social change, the word “accountability” is bandied about regularly. Unfortunately, beyond the mandate for compliance with legal entities and the regularly-noted-yet-little-understood notion of “accountability to the community we serve,” there is little discussion of what accountability really means. Accountable to whom? For what? And what does that accountability look like in … Read more

Compliance-Focused Board

For the past few years, Creating the Future’s board and community have been discussing and researching an organizational structure for moving our mission forward. What structure will facilitate our 10 year experiment – to determine how much more humane the world could be if systems were bringing out the best in all of us? If … Read more

No More Bylaws!

What do bylaws make possible for accomplishing an organization’s mission? Aside from meeting various external regulatory standards, what good do bylaws really do for an organization and the mission they have set out to accomplish? These were just some of the questions our board and community members explored at our July 2016 board meeting, as … Read more

Legal Compliance Made Interesting (July 2016 Board Meeting)

The July 2016 Creating the Future board meeting will focus on legal compliance. • While Creating the Future is in transition from one organizational structure to the next, are we remaining in compliance with the law? With our own bylaws? • If not, what will we do about that? Warning: If you’re thinking this is a … Read more

Building a Thriving Organizational Ecosystem

Creating the Future is reinventing itself, to ensure our organizational structure is not only supporting our efforts to accomplish our mission, but is modeling our vision and values in every way. The following summarizes our efforts through the end of 2015, as we head into our January 2016 meeting on the subject. For a complete … Read more

Board Meeting – April 2015

LISTEN TO THE MEETING HERE or Download the MP3 (To download to your hard drive, right-click {or click and hold on a Mac} on the link above and select “Save Target As”.. or “Save Link as”… depending on your browser) Creating the Future’s April board meeting will take place at this post on Monday, April … Read more

The Five Missing Qualities Every Board Member MUST Have

By Susan Detwiler  We all know that getting the right board members around the table is crucial. That’s probably why there are thousands of articles and blog posts that talk about recruiting new board members. Some focus on the “attribute grid” or “board matrix,” or “skills grid.”  That’s the grid that helps you identify the skills and attributes you want on your … Read more

Leadership Through Governance

By: Debra Beck, EdD We recruit our nonprofit board members, in part, for the potential represented in their personal, professional and community connections. We gravitate to their rich expertise and skills. But too often, we confine them to the boardroom and a stifling list of passive roles that do anything but engage them. If our … Read more

Evaluation That Brings Out the Best in One Another

Creating the Future’s board meeting will happen at this post on Monday, December  8th at 1pm ET / 10am PT. Board Packet Materials: December 2014 Board of Directors Meeting Agenda Key Theme:  Evaluation that is aligned with Creating the Future’s aim for a world where bringing out the best in one another results in people living … Read more