I am soooo excited to be a contributor to the just published You
and Your Nonprofit Board: Advice and
Practical Tips from the Field’s Top Practitioners, Researchers and
Provocateurs. The book is edited by
Terrie Temkin and published by Charity Channel Press. As I went through the table of contents there
were so many articles that I wanted to read, I didn’t know where to start. I was attracted to being involved with this
ambitious project from Terrie’s first call for papers. She described the project as “a series of
practical, conversationally-written articles on subjects of interest to the nonprofit
or community benefit sector” and requested articles that would “offer readers new
thinking.” She provided a list of potential questions as thought provokers and
asked for proposals on topics that excited us.
She whet the appetite of potential contributors with her description and
open ended approach. Then her
perfectionist editing and superb organizing of the final product has produced a
book that is practical and at the same time will make you want to try new ideas.
There are 38 contributors and I am honored to be among this well respected cadre
of contributors.
This is not a basic handbook.
It is an anthology of articles featuring current trends and fresh ideas
on topics of importance to nonprofit boards.
There are plenty of examples and short boxes throughout which provide
food for thought, definitions, principles, quotes, examples and practical
tips. My copy is going to be full of
yellow highlighting very soon.
I work with and write for small nonprofits and often nonprofit
books assume a level of staffing and economic status of the Board that is not
representative of their reality. This anthology
has many articles that speak to the small nonprofit experience honestly and
offer practical advice. Articles such as “Yes, Your Board Can Be
Strategic without Staff!” by Jane Garthson and “What Staff? Keeping Operations and Governance Separate in
an Organization with No Staff” by Mitch
Dorger are examples.
The whole gamut of board issues is covered from “A Blue Ribbon
Nominating Committee for your Board” by Jan Masaoka to “Act Your Age:
Organizational Life Cycles and How They Impact Your Board” by Mike Burns to “Don’t
Just Whack“Em and Plaque“Em” with an excellent example for an exit interview of
Board members by Carol Weisman.
I chose to submit an article that I have written about on my blogs. It is entitled “Exercising Board Leadership
with Social Media” and started out as a slightly changed composite of existing
blog articles at Marion Conway – Nonprofit Consultant and Nonprofit Capacity Building at managementhelp.org. Terrie’s editing with
a zillion comments and questions helped shape it into a much better article
with crisp presentation. Thank you Terrie
even though I was getting impatient, your perfectionist editing did produce a
much better product than my first submittal.
Am I a Practitioner or a Provocteur?
What do you think?
Carter McNamara says it best with this review – “Seldom have I seen a more thorough publication and with
such well-respected authors. The book covers the critical basics and brings in
the state-of-the-art. It's well-organized to be a reference manual for all of
us in nonprofits.”
Right now Amazon is offering You and Your Nonprofit Board for only
$27.72 which is a 31% discount from the $39.95 list price making it affordable
and eligible for free shipping. Click
below to go to Amazon now.
