Board Retreat Planning
A Board Retreat is a crucial space for annual planning, vision development, addressing emerging issues, training, team building, and more!
Prioritizing an annual Board Retreat is one tool that supports board development, team alignment, and organizational strategies being implemented.
Retreat Priorities
Things to keep in mind as you plan a Board Retreat:
What are you trying to accomplish?
What needs to happen during your time to accomplish that?
What training is needed to meet your organization’s goals?
What resources are needed to meet those goals?
Clarity of aspiration/goals/priorities:
Create a matrix of aspiration/logic model
Develop a History Map
How did this organization start?
What have we done thus far?
Who has been impacted?
Who has been involved?
Where are we now?
Evaluate whether the mission and vision are still true?
What are our priories now?
Planning Details
Planning Priorities
Identify the priority or objective
Build the agenda to meet the priority
Work in time to mingle and build relationships
Include discussion time
Conclude the meeting by reviewing the goal and defining next steps
Best Practices for Communication
Schedule the meeting 6-8 weeks in advance or add it to your annual calendar.
Use a calendar invite will ALL relevant details communicated on the front end.
Send the agenda ahead of time for review and input as needed
Board Retreat Meeting Agenda Items to consider including
Annual Priorities
Year review
Financials review
Board training (Nonprofit Learning Labs is a great resource!)
Team Building
Board Review: roles/evaluation
Annual Events and Initiatives
These are helpful items to have together as you intentionally work to develop your board.
Websites
Fresno Strategic Planners
Sara Bosse- sarabosse22@gmail.com
Brian Ross - brian.ross@fresno.edu
Book recommendation by Andrew Feil:
Mission Met by Eric Ryan