BOARD’S ANNUAL SELF-APPRAISAL
The “Why”
Having an annual self-appraisal process for board members is essential for the following reasons:
- It gives individual members an opportunity to measure how they are contributing to the board and to the ministry overall.
- It empowers the board members to send a message to each other that “the missions work of Go To Nations is important, and I want to do my best to see that it continues to improve and become even more effective.”
- It gives board members a framework that stimulates their growth in the areas of faith and service.
- Foundations and potential donors want to see that a board is taking itself seriously. There has to be an honorable, God-birthed cause and external focus, and there must be an awareness of how the board is taking personal ownership and responsibility in helping the vision come to pass.
- It’s a powerful way to ensure accountability and provides a healthy learning process for the members.
- It offers an incredible opportunity to change the culture of a board from a passive, non-active board to an active, highly effective board.
Jonathan D. Schick, the president of GOAL Consulting and a nationally known speaker on the development of non-profit boards, made this statement, “Implementing an effective annual self-appraisal process for a non-profit board will always have an awesome impact on a ministry; I’ve never seen a case where it did not. Then after the board culture changes, and once the people feel good and see the magic of an effective evaluative process at
work, board members will feel more comfortable and much less defensive about opening themselves up to scrutiny. When they feel that the evaluation is a supportive process, it inevitably becomes more palpably appealing.”
In the metamorphic development process of a board, the implementation of an annual self-appraisal serves as one of the essential tools that helps the board go from an initial “mom and pop” passive status model – to a board that possesses the capability in its effectiveness to match the board demands of growing international ministry.
The “How”
To implement the annual self-appraisal, a form titled “Performance Appraisal and Navigation” (PAN) is used. The form is broken down into three components: pre-appraisal, navigation, and appraisal.
Pre-appraisal includes questions pertaining to roles and responsibilities that the member has embraced for the coming year. Two main questions are asked: “What do you want to focus on? What is the area where you most want to stretch yourself?” In the navigation part, each board member identifies goals to match their roles and responsibilities.
Then, the appraisal section of the form outlines specific steps needed to reach those goals, accompanied by a timeline and criteria/benchmarks to be used for the purposes of fair evaluation. Each board member should give thoughtful, detailed, and honest answers to all the questions in each part.
Once a year, the governance committee will distribute two copies of the performance appraisal and navigation form to each board member to pray over and fill out. Once filled out, each board member is to add one copy to their Board of Directors Operational Handbook for personal reference. The second form is to be turned into the governance committee.
The performance appraisal and navigation form is accompanied with a “Possibilities Sheet” that serves as a tool to help the board member to identify opportunities and ways to serve the board. But it is in no way meant to limit the roles, responsibilities, and goals a board member can undertake.