New Board Member OnBoarding by Danielle Staudt

Logistics

2025-10-20 23:56:25 UTC

When board meetings are.

How many committees/roles I would be expected to take on.

What costs are covered by Tesol

Slowly slowly

2025-10-21 00:02:38 UTC

Intro tasks, obligations, procedures and policies more gradually rather than all in one go . I would start with a .needs to know. approach. E.g. Learn about IS policy and procedure in the context of being assigned an IS

justinshewell — 2025-10-21 01:40:59 UTC

The amount of time involved and the sensitive nature of the issues discussed.

justinshewell — 2025-10-21 01:42:48 UTC

I think most people don't know what they are getting into until they are already elected and on the Board, and I think it is even worse for people from outside the United States who may not realize how a non-profit in the US works. I think having some type of required video lesson explaining things should be required for those who get on the slate, but I don't want to make it more difficult or narrow the pool of potential leaders. Sorry. Just thinking out loud.

2025-10-21 02:32:14 UTC

Definitely the time commitment (outside of board meetings) can be extensive if one wants to stay connected. I'm not sure the number of hours shared, but it can quickly add up to 20 or more. In addition, there is an additional task of juggling between multiple platforms (e.g. TEAMS, Padlet, Google Drive, email, etc.)

2025-10-21 02:44:29 UTC

I believe that each class's onboarding process was a bit different. I don't have any improvements for the onboarding process. However, for the recruitment phase, I believe that a video Q&A for prospective board members (made by current and past board members) would have been beneficial for me. Transparent answers to questions that potential board members have would have provided a more realistic picture of board service.

Communication

governancecommittee — 2025-10-21 09:24:54 UTC

I wish I had a better understanding of communication between board members and ExCom - in terms of the importance of participation, keeping tasks on track, organizing channels to receive notifications, and get familiar with the files locations.

Be Involved

governancecommittee — 2025-10-21 09:27:23 UTC

FAQ could be used for new board members. Mentoring is a good idea but being involved in real group task completion is the best way I experienced on the board. Being involved immediately change approach to what is happening, making them your own, develop own strategies, and help work independently.

Communication

2025-10-21 23:39:49 UTC

I would say it is sometimes difficult to know which channel to check or which platform.

Mentorship

2025-10-21 23:41:49 UTC

Just spit balling, but perhaps have 3 check ins with your mentor, or have the outgoing members be mentors as well would help with the uptake. I agree with the other posters that a video would be good too.

Teams

2025-10-22 17:12:12 UTC

Quite confusing- needs to be an entire session immediately after the conference (when people are officially on the board and have full access) going through where everything is.

I wish I knew more about the number of meetings we have, or at least average.

jorgealmazan — 2025-10-23 13:03:21 UTC

Having more sessions (short sessions) for the onboarding process

jorgealmazan — 2025-10-23 13:05:26 UTC

Workgroups

2025-10-23 13:07:25 UTC

I wish we had known that there would be additional workgroups that we would be part of. I came in with the perception that the Board was much more macro-focused and would delegate the more micro-level workgroup parts to others (not staff).

Ara Salas

2025-10-23 13:08:03 UTC

I wish I had read all the documents I had to read before, once you are a Board member, you don´t have the time to do it

I wish I had learned how to use TEAMS before.

2025-10-23 13:10:38 UTC

The onboarding could be individual and have a follow-up process.

We start figuring things out when the first year is over.