When we're talking about the family, it's crucial for us to be talking about the boards of directors of the arts organization. Because the board really serves as the head of the family for the organization. Now, not every country looks at boards the same way. American boards tend to be very engaged in fundraising activities and very engaged in governance activities. In some other countries, the board is more the representative of the government when the government is a major funder. And still other countries, boards serve a more ceremonial function, and really don't involve themselves very deeply in the operations of the organization. But we believe that as arts organizations try and build their fundraising capability and they try to receive move private contributions, they need boards that are really going to be deeply involved. A board has five key roles. The first role is to be involved in the strategic planning for the organization. To really know what the plans are, to play a role in formulating those plans, and very importantly, to oversee the implementation of the plan. Not to implement the plans themselves, but to make sure the organization is in fact implementing the strategic plan that was developed. A second key function of boards is to understand the annual budget. In many arts organizations, boards will approve the budget when the expense growth looks reasonable. But I'm nervous when boards don't really dig into the budget and understand what is the programming? What is the marketing that's going to support that programming? How are we going to be doing our institutional marketing? How really are we going to be raising funds and why do we think more people will give us money this year than last year? And when boards do a thorough job of understanding and evaluating a budget, they're really serving their governance function. The third key responsibility of the board is to oversee the staff, particularly those staff members who report directly to the board. This will typically be the artistic director, or an artistic director and an executive director. But the board has a responsibility to hire those individuals, to evaluate those individuals, to compensate those individuals, and to fire those individuals when they're not fulfilling their roles properly. Many boards don't do a thorough enough job of hiring the right people for the organization, and this can obviously play a great deal of havoc with an organization when the leadership is not appropriate. So this is the third key function of the board. The fourth key function of the board is to participate in the fundraising activity. Notice I didn't say to run the fundraising activity, except in the smallest arts organizations without professional staff. I believe it's the staff's job to run fundraising, but board members should play an active role in helping to bring funding to the organization. They should be making their own gifts to the organization, and they should be soliciting their friends and associates. This is a key part of the fundraising effort for most organizations, and we need our board's support. And the fifth function of the board, which sounds an awful lot like the fourth, it sounds like fundraising but is a bit different, is to serve as ambassadors for the organization in the community. We need our board members to be out in the community saying wonderful things about us, talking about our exciting plans, and getting others to feel like they want to engage in our family as ticket buyers or volunteers, or donors, or maybe even prospective board members. When a board as a whole is out in the community talking up the organization, it's amazing the proper results and happy results we can have. What's interesting to me is how many board members complain openly to their friends about the parts of the organization they don't particularly enjoy. Or complain about a board members, or complain about the board meetings, or suggest they didn't like the last performance. That makes it extremely hard then to go into the public and say, we need your support, if the board members are being openly critical of the organization. When a board does all of those five functions well, when they are responsible, involved in the planning activity, when they understand the budget, when they do a good job of hiring, firing, and engaging and motivating their executives, when they are participating actively in the fundraising process, and when they're serving as great ambassadors for the organization, then we have a board that's extremely helpful, and hopefully potent, and is really going to lead to the success of our organization. We need that kind of group as we try and build support in our communities. We also have to keep in mind that who should sit in our board should change over time. When arts organizations are very young, when they're started, they're typically started by a visionary who has an idea for what they would like to do. And the first board of an arts organization is almost always three or four family members or best friends, who love the person who has this vision, and who know that they have to help make that vision come to pass. Usually these first board members act like staff. That is, they'll have to sew the costumes or sell the tickets, or arrange the productions, because the visionary has no professional staff, because the organization is young and fresh, and probably has very little money. So the initial board members of many arts organizations can be passionate, and loving, and supportive, but it doesn't mean they're the appropriate board members for when the organization is much more mature. As arts organizations mature, we need board members who can fill the five functions I mentioned, and particularly can be helpful in the fundraising activity. And that oftentimes means we need a different kind of board member when we're 20 years old than we need when we're just starting. And one of the challenges for many arts organizations is that they form this first board, and this first board doesn't change over time. And as a result, as the organization grows, and as the need for funding grows, and as the budget grows, the board doesn't change, and the organization finds it does not have the kind of support it needs from its board. And so what we believe is that over time, the board must be willing to examine itself and say, are we the right board members for the future? Or do we, over time, need to gradually leave the board and give up our places for people who are better able to meet the current and future needs of the organizations? When a board is willing to do that activity, they are really helping to ensure the health of the arts organization.
