This blog post from Nonprofit Law Blog had a great idea: Create a calendar of topics your board should discuss every year.
I modified their ideas a bit for typical homeschool organizations and came up with this list of topics for your board to discuss each month:
- Welcome new board members and give them a history of your organization, its purpose, an understanding of their duties and a board binder. Read over the bylaws and review your mission and purpose statement.
- Discuss new programs and activities.
- Decide on discounts and appreciation gifts for volunteers.
- Go over best practices to avoid fraud. Read them here. Implement changes as needed.
- Discuss fundraising techniques.
- Authorize committees, recruit members and delegate duties to them.
- Review your conflict resolution policy. How do you solve conflicts. Read The Peacemaker.
- Review your risk areas, safety policies and insurance coverage.
- Evaluate any paid workers, independent contractor agreements, and employment practices.
- Recruit, nominate and elect new board members.
- Set a budget near the end of the year for the next year.
- One month after end of fiscal year file IRS form 990/990-EZ or 990-N and any state forms.
As you can see, I have links to articles and blog posts on most of these topics.
And my books,
- Homeschool Co-ops: How to Start Them, Run Them and Not Burn Out
- The IRS and Your Homeschool Organization.
- Money Management in a Homeschool Organization
have many issues for your board to discuss as well.
Carol Topp, CPA