Charlene Cross

We are a newer board, so I didn't have a lot of onboarding procedures. This module helped me to come up with some strategies for creating cohesion among the board members, existing and new. I will start with creating a Google folder where I will keep the minutes, attendance sheets, and other relevant materials so that everyone who joins the board can have the same access to the information they need to be successful on the board. 

While reviewing this unit, I had so many ideas about how to increase the connection that members feel to the board. Simple things like sending a welcome letter to new members and sharing the past minutes with them. Sending thank you notes to all who attended is also a great idea that I think will really resonate with the members and help them to understand how much we appreciate their presence at the meetings. 

I have considered hosting these meetings online many times, as was mentioned in this unit. I have decided each time that holding the meetings in person… >>>

From this unit, I learned more about the importance of having all members on the same page. This hadn't really occurred to me before as I just assumed that members would figure it out as they went along, which has been my experience on other boards. I think that having an onboarding packet makes a lot of sense.

Writing the bylaws seems worthwhile, but I would love a template to follow to make the process a bit less time consuming. As an educator, I always want the members to write the laws and rules with me as a large group,… >>>

This first section of the training has shifted my mindset about the role of the advisory board. I had previously seen it as a time to update the board members on what advancements and changes we had made to the department over the previous few months. We met twice a year and honestly, I wasn't sure exactly what I was supposed to do at these meetings. I recently went to another college's advisory board meeting and it was held more like a mini-workshop on what improvements could be made to the program to make it more effective and stronger in… >>>

Comment on Bonnie Mannix's post: Hi Bonnie! I saw Nic's comment above as well and it made me want to revisit something that I had brought up to the AVP previously. Since so many different departments on campus have advisory board, would it make sense for the college to host a couple of 'Advisory Board Nights' on campus where folks from all of our boards can mingle, get some light refreshments, and then learn more about their work on the advisory board. We can then separate into our own individual meetings by department and engage them in the kinds… >>>