Congregational Governance: Is it Carver or Chaos?

Tonight’s webcast focused on models of congregational governance and the role of boards in congregations. We explored the John Carver Model of Policy Governance, along with several other governance models. In addition, we looked at accountability in congregations and ways to move a board from a micro-managing board to a generative board that is asking the visionary questions.

I’ve posted a PowerPoint version of the presentation, along with a PDF version of the slides for those who prefer to review the presentation that way.

• Congregational Governance - PowerPoint Presentation
• Congregational Governance - PDF version

You can view the entire webcast from this link: Congregational Governance Webcast. Click the big right-arrow in the center of the first slide to run the webcast. You might have to scroll a bit to see it all. The Webcast runs about 70 minutes.

Hiring Safe Staff

Making sure that your congregation has good practices in place in regard to hiring is one of the most important things a board can do in a congregation. Even people who are not specifically hired to work with children and youth, still interface with them. Your safe congregation policy should include specific plans to conduct criminal background checks on all employees, regardless of their role. You can find out more about conducting background checks and get some recommendations for companies to use by visiting the UUA web site page on Responsible Staffing.

The Art of Congregational Governance

As you consider the role of your congregation’s board and how committees operate, here are some resources that I hope are helpful. They include a PowerPoint presentation that I presented at the Art of Governance workshop in Chapel Hill in January 2008, a pdf version of the PowerPoint slides, and a compendium of articles and tools about effective boards.

• The Art of Governance - PowerPoint presentation
• The Art of Governance - PDF version
• Building Effective Congregation Boards