Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/221217
Big or Small: What's the Right Size for an Association Board? Reprinted with permission from ASSOCIATIONS NOW Adapted by: Joe Rominiecki At your next board meeting, take a moment to count the number of directors on the board. Do you know why your association's board is that size? It might seem trivial, but the number of people on an association board has an undeniable effect on its operations and on its directors' interactions. What is the right size? Well, that's debatable. So debatable, in fact, that six association executives participated in an Oxford-style debate at ASAE's 2012 Annual Meeting on this very topic. Small-board proponents cited greater flexibility, accountability, and administrative efficiency. Their opponents said large boards, properly structured, can accomplish all of that while being more inclusive and democratic. Winter 2013 | Connections Every association has its own needs, so there is likely no one-size-fits-all answer. But any discussion about governance structure should weigh the pros and cons of various board sizes. Below, we present the key arguments for small and large boards, adapted from the conference debate. Small Boards Are Better The case for small association boards is simple: It is not in our human nature to make effective, efficient decisions in groups larger than six or seven people. Sociological research supports this claim, and the typical structure of large boards is the purest evidence of their ineffectiveness. The majority of large association boards form a smaller executive committee that carries the load in making decisions. This is the real board. Everyone else simply rubber-stamps its decisions, remaining disengaged from leadership duties and unaccountable for fulfilling their responsibility to plan for the organization's future. Psychologists call this behavior "social loafing," and surely loafing is hardly what your association's members expect from their volunteer leaders. Some of the worst public failures of board oversight in recent memory—at Enron, the United Way, the University of Virginia, and the Smithsonian—resulted from lackadaisical boards with between 15 and 35 members. Meanwhile, two of the richest and most admired companies in the United States, 31