My board chair and I exchange emails several times each week and it helps immensely. In this way she knows exactly what that next grant prospect means and she has a sense of the state of all our cockeyed schemes — what they have emerged from, where they are headed, and how they integrate with other efforts. Her willingness to stay engaged and in productive mode helps me communicate well with the whole of our board even when times are a bit tough.

Talk about testing the mettle of our governance systems. These times are likely to reveal the real strengths and weaknesses of our boards. Will they panic, ignore, or move forward to help in unexpected ways?

I’d love to hear back from you today to get a sense of how your board is acting and reacting to funding ambiguities, funding cuts, and the new and different opportunities popping up in this rugged landscape.

How is your board responding to the uncertainties of the environment? What is the best or the worst thing they’ve done? What are the topics of discussions and at what level? How would you rate their performance on a scale of one (clueless) to ten (insightful, challenging, helpful and informed).

You may post your feedback to our Web site; or if you prefer, reply privately to me, letting me know whether we can post your reply without attribution.

p.s. As you may know NPQ is largely dependent on your subscriptions. You can make our board (and us) very happy by subscribing today.