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Conference Outline
| Day One | Day Two |

Mr. Crouch utilized a variety of innovative communication tools, which allowed for much conference participant interaction and discussion. Each day brought large and small group exercises, formal presentations, problem solving, and audience feedback sessions.

Day One —

Welcome

• Session overview and objectives.
• Understanding the strategies utilized by successful not-for-profit organizations to create and maintain success:
  1. Creating a reputation for value
  2. Identifying a value equation and identity of excellence
  3. Fostering an enjoyable sense of community (culture)
  4. Designing a nimble, more business-like infrastructure

Strategies for Success

• State of the art leadership in re-designing the infrastructure
• An evolving model of not-for-profit infrastructure - not-for-profits are moving and changing
• Diagnosing the not-for-profits organization's infrastructure

The New Look Of the Volunteer Work (Committee) Structure

• Building volunteer work group systems that work and are more user friendly
  1. Committee Accountability
  2. Moving from political based to competency based work groups
  3. Moving from standing to ad hoc committees
  4. Strategic activity-oriented work groups replacing program oriented committees
  5. The use of ad hoc advisory groups

A New Way Of Governing — Knowledge-Based Strategic Governance

• The move to improved leadership development and succession planning
  1. Reshaping to be volunteer user friendly
  2. Formalizing leadership development
  3. New roles for the nomination committee
• Building volunteer boards that focus on knowledge-based governance
  1. Board Self-Assessment Questionnaire
  2. Overview of typical governance leadership roles and how they are changing
  3. The roles and functions of the Board-outcomes and ends
  4. Influential leadership —- a new way of leading
  5. Governance style is changing
  6. Introducing Knowledge-Based Strategic Governance -four new essential elements of governance
  7. A knowledge-based organization and governance system
  8. The notion of dialogue before deliberation
  9. Four keys for maintaining Board leadership focus
  10. Eliminating the dead moose's
  11. The need to develop outcome (ends) oriented policy for the Board — a change in culture

Planning Strategically Over Four Horizons

• The leadership team coming to consensus on what success will look like on an ongoing basis
  1. Board Self-Assessment Questionnaire
  2. Overview of planning strategically and the four planning horizons
  3. Strategic vs. operational planning (focussing on what the organization is not currently doing —- but must be doing in the future)
  4. Roles and responsibilities in planning strategically
  5. Key implementation issues —- strategic governing

What Have We Learned

Nonprofit Service Reception 5:00-7:00

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Day Two —

Welcome

• Session overview and objectives

Defining and Securing Elements for Success

• Board/Staff relationship Self-Assessment Questionnaire
• Who is the CEO?
• Understanding the partner leadership mission
• The consultative relationship with staff - preserving the integrity of the partnership - relationship with the Board
• Whose job (strategy) is it —- board or staff?
• Being part of the leadership team's decision process

Key Changes in Staff Infrastructure

• Staff's role and relationship in decision-making and implementing the strategic direction
• Changes in staff structure
• Increased business planning
• Outsourcing

Defining & Identifying Not-For-Profit Culture

• Defining Culture
• Exploring the cultural model
• Identifying the not for profit's current culture and climate
• Using cultural diagnostic checkpoints
• Developing core Ideology

Building The Leadership Partnership —- Personally????

• Knowing what builds or destroys trust within the partnership
• Using the Johari Window Theory of inter-personal communication
• Understanding the importance eof communication and perceptions in the partnership
• Identifying each participants leadership style (MBTI)

Breakout Sessions

• Quick review of dialogue before deliberation decision making process. Dialogue is a facilitated discussion in two parts:
  1. What do we know about the issue - assumptions?
  2. What can we do - decisions and actions? This is the place for participants to share in their groups what has worked for their organizations
• There will be some brief background material on each mega issue given to the groups prior to the dialogue
• Review of the exercise and its expected outcomes with the full group prior to breaking in to sub-groups
• Mega Issues could include:
1. How do not-for-profits organization address the decline in volunteerism?
2. Where will future funding and revenue come from - how do we remain financially secure and stable?
3. How do we get the attention of, attract, and retain younger members?
4. How will no-for-profit organizations need to change their structures and processes to more expediently develop and successfully implement new programs, services, products, etc.?
5. To what degree will not-for-profits organizations need to employ the Internet and E-commerce to increase membership value and revenue in the next 5 to 10 years?
6. What will not-for-profits organizations have to do to remain their members primary organization?
7. Where will not-for-profits organizations need to review and reshape their infrastructures to be more fluid, flexible and responsive (and to better link with their strategic directions)?
• Decide on whether the results should be reported out to the full group?

Where do we go from here?

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“The quality of our communities is directly tied to whether nonprofits achieve excellence in their operations. Learning about research and best practice can help.”

—Mary Stewart Hall, Professor, Nonprofit Studies, Seattle University

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