Many business people give back by serving on community service boards. This is a great way for worthy organizations to gain from your enthusiasm, skills and talent. It also helps grow your network of advice and support people.

Board members of community service organizations have legal responsibilities just like for-profit corporate boards. If you want to be effective, learn the rules. For most service organizations the rules are laid out in the constitution and applies to formal board members or “committee” members. Too many people don’t look at this document until it’s too late. I’ve seen active Not-For-Profits that have not held an Annual General Meeting for 3 years because the board blindly followed what the previous guys did. But someone forgot to have an AGM.

Some constitutions are hard to read, in that case consider updating the constitution to plain English. The existing constitution should have provisions for making changes.

Take the time to familiarize yourself with the contents of the constitution.

I am advising a non-profit organization on a internal members dispute. That’s one advantage of my background in Alternative Dispute Resolution and consulting. Sadly it means I spend too much time with people who are in the middle of arguments. Getting the emotion and heat out of a dispute is the best way to win a satisfactory resolution. That outcome may be Win-Win, Win-Lose or even Lose with damage mitigation.

This nonprofit organization had to spill its board but encountered two problems. Firstly most board members relied on their Chairman to explain this board removal process outlined in the constitution. Not enough of them checked the details themselves. Secondly the process they followed was mostly right. Had they read the constitution, they could have quoted the clause under which they acted and worded their resolutions better. Now they’ve got a vocal and unhappy minority who are threatening legal action because of some unclear wording.