Book VII · The board · Fall 2026
The People You Answer To
Nonprofit board member roles, responsibilities, and how to build a board that works
You do not have a board. You have nine people who are fond of you and have signed something.
14 chapters · 118 pages · Fall 2026
What it is
That is not an insult and it is not unusual. You needed three names by Friday, and the people who said yes said yes because they liked you. The problem arrives later, in a specific month, and by then it is too late to become a different kind of body.
This volume is about becoming one on purpose. What a board is actually for and what yours currently does. The founding board and its expiry date. Recruiting for what you lack instead of what you enjoy — which means recruiting somebody whose central value is a willingness to say an unwelcome thing to a person they like. The chair relationship, which makes every other item here easier or harder. Meetings that decide things. Committees that are not a subheading.
Then the three duties most directors have never heard named and signed up for anyway. Executive session, and why you should want it. Evaluating the executive director, which is the board’s central job and the one small organizations skip entirely. Board giving. Conflict. Removing a director. And succession, started early, because everybody leaves and the only question is whether the organization finds out on your terms.
A founding board that has never disagreed with you is not evidence that you are right. It is evidence that nothing has been tested. Book VII · The People You Answer To
What this volume assumes
That you have directors, however you got them. Book One covers assembling the first three.
Every chapter
14 chapters, and what each one does.
Every one of them, with the line it opens on. If a chapter is no use to you, that line tells you before you have spent ten minutes finding out.
- 01
What a Board Is For, and What Yours Currently Does
You do not have a board. You have nine people who are fond of you and have signed something.
- 02
The Founding Board and Its Expiry Date
You did not recruit them. You needed three names by Friday.
- 03
Recruiting for What You Lack
Stop recruiting people who like you. You have those.
- 04
The Chair Relationship
Every other thing in this book gets easier or harder depending on one person.
- 05
Meetings That Decide Things
If the meeting could be replaced by an email, it should have been.
- 06
Committees That Are Not Theatre
A committee that only meets when the board meets is not a committee. It is a subheading.
- 07
What Directors Actually Owe, in Plain Language
Three duties. Most directors have never heard them named, and they signed up for all three.
- 08
Executive Session, and Why You Should Want It
A board that cannot talk without you is not able to employ you.
- 09
Evaluating the Executive Director
The board's central job, and the one small organizations skip entirely.
- 10
Board Giving, and the Awkward Conversation
Every director should give. The amount matters much less than you think, and the participation matters much more.
- 11
Conflict
A board that has never disagreed with you is not peaceful. It is untested, and you will find out which in the worst possible month.
- 12
Removing a Director
The conversation nobody has, about the person everybody has discussed.
- 13
The Board in a Crisis
This is the week the board finds out what it is, and it will be too late to become something else.
- 14
Succession, Started Early
Everybody leaves. The only question is whether the organization finds out on your terms.
Two more lines from inside
How it reads.
A founder who takes the minutes controls the record of a body that oversees the founder.
Book VII · The People You Answer To
The question is never whether your board disagrees with you. It is whether they do it in front of you.
Book VII · The People You Answer To
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Where this one stops
That you have directors, however you got them. Book One covers assembling the first three.
Nothing here is repeated in another volume. When the answer lives in a different book you get a chapter number, not four pages you have already read.
Book VII · Fall 2026
It publishes
with the other
nine.
The whole Library lands at once. You did not recruit a board. You needed three names by Friday. What that costs, and how to fix it before the month it matters.
