Board Recruitment and Orientation: A Step-by-Step, Common Sense Guide (Paperback)

by Hildy Gottlieb (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Does your organization have a better program for recruiting and training the janitor than recruiting and training its board members? This step-by-step manual will help you create a strong recruitment and orientation program, putting your board on the road to increased effectiveness. Whether your board needs minor tweaks or a major overhaul, you will find yourself coming back to this common sense guide again and again. This no-nonsense manual, with dozens of samples, checklists, forms and real life stories, will show you:
How changing your recruiting mindset can ignite your recruitment efforts
What qualities board members MUST have (they may not be what you think!)
Where to find prospects and who should do the looking
How to 'uninvite' a prospect when the fit isn't right
How new board members can hit the ground running the moment they're appointed - and earlier!
Your organization's best recruiting tool
How to get the most from folks who just aren't board material
And more!

From the Publisher

Here is what folks are saying about Board Recruitment & Orientation (3rd Edition):

I didn't think the 1st edition of Board Recruitment & Orientation could get any better, but this Revised Edition proves me wrong. If you have the first edition, give it away and buy this one!
Renata Rafferty,
Syndicated NonProfit Columnist and Best Selling Author of "Don't Just Give It Away: How to Make the Most of Your Charitable Giving"

Hildy Gottlieb's practical guide will enhance any board, providing a framework that organizations can customize to address their own specific concerns. Given my role in improving the effectiveness of Volunteers of America's local affiliates, I will be recommending it to them all.
Pam Olsen
Vice President of Planning, Volunteers of America National Office

A truly useful book is one that is willing to guide us along a straight, down-to-earth path, even if that means debunking such entrenched dogma as "recruit board members for their wealth" and "let the CEO recruit the board." Hildy Gottlieb has not only written such a book, she has tackled one of the most neglected areas in today's nonprofit world: Board Recruitment. Bravo!
Stephen C. Nill,
J.D.,and CEO, CharityChannel.com

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Renaissance Pr (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971448248
• ISBN-13: 978-0971448247
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,421,014 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Readable. Practical. Debunks entrenched dogma. Bravo!, October 12, 2001

By	Stephen Nill "CEO, CharityChannel.com" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When a book aims to be a practical and immediately useful workbook, I am a particularly tough customer -- especially with books dealing with any aspect of the all-important nonprofit board.

A truly useful book is one that is willing to guide us along a straight, down-to-earth path, even if that means debunking such entrenched dogma as "recruit board members for their wealth" and "let the CEO recruit the board." Hildy Gottlieb has not only written such a book, she has tackled one of the most neglected areas in today's nonprofit world: board recruitment. Bravo!

Gottlieb starts with a simple premise -- that the recruitment process is the oft-neglected key to building a powerful and dynamic board. She challenges us to "[t]hink of the worst board member [we've] ever known, and remember that someone actually recruited him." Hmm.

Look. I'm busy. You're busy. This workbook wastes no time, thankfully. It establishes the five-step process and efficiently marches through each one:

Step 1: Establishing Qualifications
Step 2: Board Member Job Description
Step 3: Identifying Prospects
Step 4: Application Process
Step 5: Preparing the New Board Member to Govern

The book gets us to work with pencil and paper by providing a worksheet to brainstorm the characteristics that board members must have. I like that. It is, after all, a WORKbook. But we're not left without guidance; Gottlieb gets us started with examples such as "[w]illingness to commit time for board meetings, committee meetings, planning sessions, special events," and "[w]illingness AND ability to add their expertise, time, resources when the need arises -- not already committed."

Before you say "duh, why do I need a book to tell me that?" it's amazing how many boards are populated by individuals who don't show up, or, when they do, provide little or nothing of real value, or, worse, actually work against the interests of the organization. This workbook shows how to avoid such board members and, further, how to identify and recruit the kind of board members that really move the organization forward. When it comes to board member recruitment, even the most basic points are too often overlooked, with dire consequences for the organization.

The book is not, however, a surface treatment. Gottlieb uses her considerable 10+ years as a nonprofit consultant, and that of her consulting-practice partner Demitri Petropolis, to drill down into the details when necessary. She strikes just the right balance between too little and too much. To keep things interesting, Gottlieb uses stories, checklists, forms and charts throughout.

Nor is it timid. Gottlieb debunks plenty of entrenched dogma about the board-member recruitment process -- even the idea of recruiting a board member because of wealth. Her willingness to supplant dogma with what her experience has taught is one reason this book is an important contribution to the nonprofit sector. I intend to cite it repeatedly in CharityChannel.com discussions whenever I see tired old dogma being asserted when what we need are experienced practitioners to tell it like it is. Gottlieb tells it like it is, fearlessly.

Priced as it is, there is no reason why this workbook should not be in the hands of every board or staff member who is responsible for recruiting. In fact, I'm going to make a gift of several copies to some of my nonprofit clients.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars easy, straight-forward workbook everyone seems to enjoy, May 5, 2003

By	Mr. Ronald C Bulmer, Clarity Mentoring (Halifax, Nova Scotia) - See all my reviews

This is a quick-read, fun to implement and deeply effective workbook - one which busy board members (and at least one executive director I know) seem to love. This workbook will be useful for anyone putting together any group of people to accomplish a task (yes, it works for committees too).

I loved the section asking three questions about criteria on who you want to serve: must have's, wouldn't it be nice to have's and the never in a million years category.

The workbook is fun to use (great conversation starter) and wastes no time. It's built for the real world - practical, effective - and indispensible. I may have to order another because it's so difficult to get back my copy when I lend it to
someone (which I often do)!

What a joy to spend money on a product which has such a tremendous return-on-investment. I haven't implemented every
chapter as yet, but I plan to - and can't wait to see the results!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear, Accessible, and Optimistic, October 18, 2005

By	J. S. Tennen "Jane Savitt Tennen" (Nonprofit Consultant and Writer/NYC Area) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

One of the wonderful things about this book is its overwhelmingly optimistic perspective on the role a board and its members can play in a nonprofit organization. Hildy Gottlieb's positive attitude and enthusiasm for the role of nonprofits are evident throughout. Her charts and workbook pages are useful and open-ended, so that each organization can individualize the process. The book is a wonderful resource.