In mid-October 2007, the Board of the Teton County School District #1 in Jackson, Wyoming, unanimously approved a number of recommendations of the Board’s High-Impact Governing Task Force aimed at strengthening the Board’s governing capacity.  Among the more important actions the Board took were adoption of a new standing committee structure and of guidelines to govern the new committees’ operations.  The new Board committees are now firmly established and functioning as very effective “governing engines.”  I recently talked with Teton’s superintendent, Pam Shea, about the work of the High-Impact Governing Task Force.

Q: Pam, what are the chief factors that account for the High-Impact Governing Task Force’s success as a board development tool?

Pam:    Above all else, the composition of the Task Force – headed by the Board President and including two other Board members and myself – ensured that three key Board members became strong owners of, and passionate advocates for, the recommendations in the Action Report.  Our process was the polar opposite of just hiring an outside consultant to identify issues, come up with recommendations, and try to sell them to the Board.  Also, the Task Force followed a meticulously designed, very logical and transparent process, including formally adopted “design assumptions” to guide our work and detailed analysis of governance issues.  We definitely didn’t jump to conclusions or fall victim to preconceived notions of what needed to be done on the governance front.  And we retained a consultant with 25 years of experience in working with nonprofit and public boards of all kinds to facilitate Task Force deliberations and to draft the various sections of the Action Report for Task Force review.

Q: How did the Task Force handle presentation of its Action Report to the Board?

Pam:    In the first place, Doug, we set aside three hours for the Task Force to present its recommendations at a special Board work session since we wanted plenty of time for questions and discussion.  And rather than just thumbing through the lengthy Action Report, Task Force members all participated in making a PowerPoint presentation that highlighted the recommended actions, with our consultant present as a resource but NOT a formal presenter.  So we set up a peer-to-peer situation.  By the way, the Task Force presenters met for a “dress rehearsal” the night before the special Board session, running through the slides and asking each other questions.  In light of the importance of the recommendations in terms of our Board’s governing capacity, we weren’t about to “wing it” as presenters, and I’m sure that the unanimous vote on each recommended action had a lot to do with the quality of our presentation.