Neepawa Boards Get a Good Tuning Up

A community like Neepawa runs on dedicated, usually volunteer, boards, right from the Town Council and credit union down to arts festivals and minor sports. That was what prompted the Neepawa and Area Community Foundation to arrange a Lunch and Learn workshop to help boards recruit the right people and help volunteers to become those effective and valuable members of community boards.

Facilitator Joe Masi looked at the board relationship from both sides, discussing how to be that good board member as well as how to match people to roles to fill out your board. He outlined a lot of key points, including needing a genuine interest in the organisation, eagerness to participate, and a willingness to prepare, before opening up the conversation to the direct needs of Neepawa boards.

One of the recurring issues was the role of the board in transitioning new lead staff into an organisation. During the pandemic, several local organisations saw a changeover of their administrator or executive director, including four of the organisations present at the workshop. Masi stressed the need for good communication and achievable goals, as well as giving the new employee the space to develop their own working style and make their own mark on the organisation.

That advice was also relevant to attendees who were looking at how to recruit more people from an already stretched volunteer pool, a perennial problem in Neepawa and many other small communities. One of the mistakes boards make, said Masi, is throwing people into the deep end without mentoring them into their board role. Starting people with clear responsibilities and achievable goals helps them grow into larger roles, whether heading a committee or joining the executive. Too much too soon, as well as a mismatch between the board’s needs and the person’s strengths, leads to lack of investment and quick turnover.

Consensus in the room was that it was a problem many had seen repeatedly over their tenures on various local boards, and discussion circled around how to address it along with related issues such as board burnout. Attendees, which included the Beautiful Plains Museum, Westlake Employment, and Neepawa Home Assistance, among many others, left with several strategies to implement in the coming board year.