Governance Process

POLICY TITLE: GP1 - Governing Style

We believe that the region as a whole, each community within the region, and each individual within the community, must be prepared for the ever changing future as it relates to education, employment and business opportunities, and wholeness of life.

Therefore, the Board will govern with an emphasis on:

• outward vision rather than an internal preoccupation;
• encouragement of diversity in viewpoints;
• strategic leadership more than administrative detail;
• clear distinction of Board and presidential roles
• collective rather than individual decisions;
• future rather than past or present; and,
• pro-activity rather than reactivity.

The Board will:

1. Cultivate a sense of group responsibility. The Board, not the staff, will be responsible for excellence in governing. The Board will be an initiator of policy, not merely a reactor to staff initiatives. The Board will use the expertise of individual members to enhance the ability of the Board as a body, rather than to substitute the individual judgments for the Board's values.
2. Recognize the viewpoint of individual members of the Board. Each Board member in turn acknowledges his/her responsibility to represent the region as a whole in making decisions.
3. Direct, control and inspire the organization through the careful establishment of broad written policies reflecting the Board's values and perspectives. The Board's major focus will be on the intended long term impacts outside the operating organization (ends), not on the administrative or programmatic means of attaining those effects.
4. Enforce upon itself whatever discipline is needed to govern with excellence. Discipline will apply to matters such as attendance, confidentiality, policy making principles, preparation, respect of roles, speaking with one voice, and ensuring the continuity of governance capability. Continual Board development will include orientation of new members in the Board's governance process and periodic Board discussion of process improvement. The Board will allow no officer, individual or committee of the Board to hinder or be an excuse for not fulfilling its commitments.
5. Monitor and discuss the Board's process and performance at each meeting. Self-monitoring will include comparison of Board activity and discipline to policies in the Governance Process and Board-Staff Relationship categories.
6. Commit to regular Policy Governance and director development training per board calendar year according to a plan approved by the board at the beginning of each board cycle and amended as necessary.