Approved/revised: September 5, 2012
The Board must also set policies for its own internal workings -- how meetings will be conducted, what topics will be addressed, the role of officers and committees, how the Board will discipline itself. An effective design of Board process ensures that the Board fulfils its three primary responsibilities:
1. maintaining links to the community (NVIT's "ownership");
2. establishing the four categories of written policies;
3. assuring executive performance.
These are areas in which the Board, and only the Board, must assume full responsibility. By setting clear Board process policies, the Board develops a consistent plan for how it will operate--compelling it to remain focused on the critical challenges of providing vision and leadership.
Except for what belongs in Bylaws or enabling statutes, these categories of Board policy are exhaustive, that is, they contain everything the Board has to say about values and perspectives that underlie NVIT's organizational decisions, activities, practices, budgets and goals. These policies are succinct and few.