Member Board relations guidelines

Max Dana Updated by Max Dana

Purpose

The purpose of these guidelines is to guide ArtsPool workers in their interactions with member organizations’ Boards. ArtsPool's goal is to facilitate the Board in their governance duties toward the organization without interfering in relations between the Board and the member organization’s staff.

For the purposes of these guidelines, Contact will refer to whichever member employee is designated by the member as the legal contact with decision-making authority in the organization. In most instances, this is the Executive Director or equivalent. An ArtsPooler is someone who works for ArtsPool.

Guidelines

A member's ArtsPool service team primarily supports the member's staff. As such, ArtsPoolers should never make contact with a member organization’s Board member on their own initiative (except as required by #5 below).

  1. If a member’s Contact asks an ArtsPooler to send an approved document to the Board, a Committee, or an individual Board members (for signature or review), the ArtsPooler may do so, but they will always copy the member’s Contact on the communication. An exception to this is Conflict of Interest Disclosures, which many auditors require to be kept confidential during the audit process.
  2. If a Board member approaches an ArtsPooler for information, the best practice is to check with the Contact before replying, and to copy the Contact on any reply.
  3. ArtsPoolers should avoid expressing any opinion as to the behavior or job performance of a member organization’s staff to their supervisor or Board, or of their Board/Supervisor to their staff.
  4. ArtsPoolers should avoid volunteering advice on Board/staff relations to either party. If asked for advice, the response should be confined within the scope of the ArtsPoolers specific services to the company (i.e., financial maintenance, financial operations, workforce administration, or member liaison).
  5. In the event of an allegation or suspicion of fraud, theft, embezzlement, accounting or auditing irregularities, bribery, kickbacks, or misuse of the organization’s assets or personnel, these guidelines will be superseded by the relevant Whistleblower laws and policies. In such a situation, ArtsPoolers should:
    1. Follow the member organization’s Whistleblower policy.
    2. If the organization has no Whistleblower policy, alert the Contact.
    3. If the Contact is implicated, alert the Board Treasurer or Chair of the Audit Committee.

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