Webinar: Best Practices for Working with a Board of Directors
Webinar Description
There’s no shortage of reading material about how nonprofit boards of directors are supposed to operate. But when you are the paid or unpaid executive director or the board president who sometimes fills the role of executive director in an all-volunteer organization, you need to be more than book smart to successfully achieve the delicate balance of working for—and with—your board of directors. Join us to hear street smart advice from an executive director and all-volunteer board president as they offer best practices learned from their experience working with a board.
This webinar is part of the StEPs Lab series of online continuing education offered to both StEPs program participants and all others interested in the topic of financial management. This is StEPs Lab 20.
Details
DATE: February 20, 2020
TIME: 3:00 - 4:15 pm EASTERN (Remember to adjust for your time zone)
COST: $40 Members / $65 Nonmembers / $15 discount for StEPs participants with promo code found on StEPs Community website
We will record this webinar. Access the Recorded Webinar in the AASLH Resource Center after the event has passed. Registrants of this event receive complimentary access to the recordings in their Dashboard.
Closed captioning is provided for this event.
Join the Museum Education Roundtable Board of Directors
The Museum Education Roundtable (MER) is seeking nominations of qualified, committed and diverse professionals for election to the MER Board of Directors!
About the Museum Education Roundtable (MER)
The mission of the Museum Education Roundtable is to inspire innovative thinking for the field through engagement with scholarly and practice-based content explored in the Journal of Museum Education. The JME is the only peer-reviewed journal for the field. Through the JME and related projects and activities, MER advances the museum field by promoting scholarship, dialogue, and community related to critical issues in museum education.
About the Board of Directors and Opportunities to Contribute
The MER Board of Directors is a working board amounting to a time commitment of a few hours per week on average. Board members participate in scheduled quarterly board meetings and monthly action team meetings via conference call. Board members attend an in-person annual retreat in August.
Each board member serves on an action team. Current action teams are Communications and Editorial. The Communications team coordinates messaging about the JME, MER membership and related activities, works to raise brand awareness, and contributes to the ongoing conversation about museum education. The Editorial team works with the Editor in Chief of the JME to ensure the seamless publication of the quarterly journal, to cultivate and secure guest editors and authors, and to develop themes for upcoming issues. Some board members also serve in officer roles, or on special project task forces.
Specific areas of expertise we are currently seeking for the board include: finance, social media, and editorial and publication.
Terms, Requirements and Benefits of Board Service
Board members serve a three-year term (October 2018 - September 2021). An additional one to three more years is possible for a second term.
All incoming and current board members are required to attend the annual Board Retreat each August, which alternates between Washington, D.C. and another city each year. The 2018 retreat will take place in Washington, D.C. on August 5 and 6. While not required, board members are also encouraged to stay for the annual MER Forum on August 7.
Board members (or their institutions) must bear the cost of board participation (specifically attendance at the annual retreat) – MER does not reimburse personal expenses incurred by board members. Board members are also expected to maintain MER membership and contribute financially at a level meaningful to them (any amount).
Benefits of board service include leadership development, professional networking, and learning about non-profit management, marketing and communications, and academic publishing.
Application and Nomination Process
You may nominate yourself or a colleague for board service. Both nomination types are equally encouraged. All nominations must include a nomination letter (from the nominee or a colleague) that includes the name, title, and contact information of the nominee and a describes the nominee’s interest and qualifications. The nominee must also fill out an application, indicating the desire and time to actively serve. Applications are available on the MER website www.museumeducation.info or by emailing the MER Nominations Task Force Chair.
Nominees must be current members of MER before they are selected as a candidate.
Nomination applications must be received via email by March 31, 2018.
For more information, contact:
Samantha Norton
MER Nominations Task Force Co-Chair
Sr. Director of Learning Programs
John G. Shedd Aquarium
snorton@sheddaquarium.org
Storify of the Jan 2017 #AASLHchat: Building Better Boards
On January 24, AASLH held our fourth #AASLHchat on Twitter. These monthly discussions are shaping up to be a great way for AASLH’ers to crowdsource new ideas and fresh solutions to challenges facing history organizations.
In September, in the midst of Pokémon Go and Hamilton buzz, we held our first chat on “Incorporating Pop Culture Phenomena into Tours & Programming.” After our Annual Meeting, the second #AASLHchat explored “Issues Facing Emerging History Professionals.” Our last social media meetup of 2016 tackled the tough subject of how history organizations should be “Serving Communities During Difficult Times.”
This week, we kicked off 2017 with a chat on Building Better Boards. Lots of great tips, ideas, and insights were shared. You can see the Storify/transcript here. Make sure to follow AASLH on Twitter so you don’t miss our next #AASLHchat, which will take place in mid-February (date and subject TBD).
#AASLHchat on Twitter: Building Better Boards
On January 24 at 8:30 pm EST (5:30 pm PST/ 6:30 pm MST/ 7:30 pm CST), AASLH will hold a #AASLHchat on Twitter. The topic will be “Building Better Boards." This chat is being guest-hosted by the AASLH Small Museums Affinity Community, who developed the prompts.
To participate in the open chat, just watch the AASLH Twitter account (@AASLH) and/or the hashtag #AASLHchat at the chat time. Specific prompts will be given at that time. Anyone is welcome to participate in the conversation.
What's a Twitter chat?
A Twitter chat is a public conversation held at a specific time around a designated hashtag. This open-access platform allows interested people and organizations to discuss a set of prompts given by the chat host.