Board Development

Excellent boards and their performances do not happen by accident. Nor do they develop in a vacuum. It takes continuous planning, refining and redefining.

As a non-profit organization matures, it continually refocuses its mission to meet its changing environment. The board must evolve to remain energized and connected to the mission.
 
Talking Points provides a customized approach to help organizations, among other things, re-connect their boards with mission, calibrate thinking about how the board works,  make board members effective, improve overall strategy and transitions, accomplish objectives and provide “how to” suggestions for achieving measurable success.

Talking Point Accomplishments:
UNC Charlotte Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC)
Charge: Start-up the center; coordinate the industry advisory board and implementation team to meet the engineering workforce and research requirements for the nation’s growing electric energy needs.
Approach: Benchmark curricula, produce gap analysis and action items; establish the board and introduce best practices for advisory boards.
Result: Helped recruit board members for EPIC; established practices for the EPIC industrial board of advisors and implementation team. EPIC was the only new university program funded by the NC General Assembly in 2009. Created/executed plan to include an energy track of presentations for the engineering trade group, IEEE, at 700-attendee 2010 Southeast Region meeting in Charlotte.

Festival in the Park
Charge: Set new strategic direction for 30-year-old Charlotte arts and family festival.
Approach: Convene a committee comprising board members and community experts in arts, parks and civic affairs to identify innovative ways to scale-up its flagship annual event.
Result: Ideas generated in meetings during a 4-month period were field-tested at the 2009 event. Successful activities will be incorporated into the 2010 event and beyond.

Multiple Non-profits and Corporate Community
Charge:  Address multiple, significant capital campaign requests totaling $400 million from the non-profit community in a difficult economic environment.
Approach: Coordinate corporate community relations leaders and major non-profits to discuss the issue, including needs and resources of both; determine best practices.
Result: Instituted quality control for requests and decision-making, including developing a process that provides submission guidance to non-profits and establishes background requirements needed.

About Scott Carlberg

• Board governance coach, certified nationally through Board Source
• Leads board of directors through strategic planning, including issue identification, vision, mission, strategic responses, objectives
• Coaches management for effectiveness
• Assists in creating effective organizational processes
• Experience managing more than $85 million in “corporate social investing,” ensuring funds are disbursed to well-managed non-profits
• Past chair of The Conference Board’s national “Community and Public Issues Council”
• Co-creator/instructor, Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, “strategic planning” professional course