Well put, Dr. Roehrich! For my advisory board, we meet 4 times annually and if they are never in attendance it's time for recommitment or change. However, if they are participating in even though they can not attend one or two of the quarterly meetings, there must be some way for them to sign in as participating in the meeting, which is the requirement of the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools - ABHES, of which my school has its institutional accreditation. These are excellent questions I hope to discover in upcoming modules 2 through 4.
-Thank You
Randall,
Thank you for your response. Does ABHES provide suggested ways to meet their meeting requirements, e.g. virtual meeting options or teleconferencing? If so, have you used either of these or other alternative approaches to fully engage your board if a member(s) can't be physically present? I served on a governing board where teleconferencing was frequently used as a way to bring all the members together; it was quite effective. Elluminate or Microsoft Meeting would provide an additional level of engagement if the accrediting body permits their use.
R. Roehrich
Dr. Roehrich,
ABHES requires schools to have signatures of those in attendance. I suppose we could bring the sign in sheets to each meeting for those who participated, but were physically absent to sign in during the next meeting. Most of our meetings are held at restaurants known for their great food, which is a big draw. But the advisory board is not large enough to warrant a private conference room either at the school or the restaurants, which would allow us to teleconference or virtual meetings on computer. The real advantage is we have great members right now who have a real interest in participating / engaging in discussions and even voting on bigger or more important matters. Thank you for your suggestions.
Randall,
Thanks for your response. One of the difficult aspects of facilitating a course online, is that as faculty we never get a chance to gain insight about our learners or their schools in advance of interacting with them in the course. So at times my responses may seem a bit "out-of-the-park" for your situation, e.g. virtual meetings; clearly that wouldn't work in a restaurant with the size group you described, so I appreciate your clarifications. I surmise from your postings that you have a pretty good handle on your advisory board's operation and value; I trust that the remainder of the course will help you enhance it even further. I'm looking forward to our continued dialogs.
As a heads-up, I will be out-of-town January 13-16 on an accreditation visit. I expect to be putting in extra long days and nights, so depending on time and Internet connectivity, my responses to you may be delayed until I return.
R. Roehrich
This is a difficult question and one we continue to wrestle with each year. Some members on the board are very dedicated and several rarely attend meetings. First I think you need to engage the board members by giving them some specific task or area of responsibility such as chairing a program specific advisory committee. In addition, having an agenda sent out in advance and including items that require discussion and input from the board is helpful. Lastly, you need to weed out the ineffective board members and replace them with individuals who are engaged.
Nancy, I agree with the points you made in your posting. In addition to including members on committes, what other ways could you encourage commitment of members to serve your school?
R. Roehrich
I know these are old posts and I'm new but this topic is something we struggle with also. The majority of our advisory members are physicians, primarily surgeons. This in itself causes difficulties in scheduling our meetings to coincide with their busy professional and personal lives. We also tempt our members with great food but that cannot compete with precious time with families. I specifically am responding to this post because I like the suggestion of assigning a specific task to each member. Letting them know they are the only member speaking about this topic would make them feel a little more obligated to attend. At least I'm willing to try! Thank you for the suggestion!
Mary,
Another technique you might try is using GotoMeeting, that way the members can log in from their office or home. Using the technique above plus GotoMeeting may provide you with the option you are looking for, just remember to keep the meeting within one hour, that's about the maximum amount of attention one can attribute with a busy professional and family schedule. Good Luck!
Dr. Robert Roehrich
