Dear CBODN members,
Spring has sprung! There are several budding areas for CBODN right now, and I would like to call your attention to three in particular: bylaws revisions, membership survey, and new partnerships. Though they are only buds right now, we expect them to fully bloom between April and June.
Bylaws Revisions
We will have our Annual General Membership Meeting early on the morning of our conference. We will use this meeting for an important vote on bylaws revisions. CBODN's Board of Directors, especially Joe Conroy and Cindy Stark, have been working diligently since September to revise our bylaws. Joe and Cindy have collaborated with CGG and the CBODN Executive Team and have sought legal counsel and feedback from board members. Now we need your input. Please be on the lookout for a draft of the revised bylaws to review prior to our vote on April 30th.
There are two primary drivers for our need to revise the bylaws. First, the size of our board needs to be smaller. At full capacity, we are currently at 21 board members. This is too large and is not conducive to effective communication, efficient operations, or cohesive relationships. We decided that we need a smaller and differently structured board in order to foster the best and most collaboration. Now that we have such a strong partnership with CGG, the board is able to share much of our tactical work with them and focus on strategic leadership. We also believe that a smaller board will cultivate more active, hands-on committees with stronger member engagement. This will allow the board to share the workload and grow future leaders.
At the same time, we have taken great care to think several years out and provide future boards with the latitude to expand or contract or reinvent the board or the organization as needed. You will find that the new version of our bylaws provides greater flexibility for our organization to be more adaptive to shifting contexts in the coming years.
The second driver for bylaws revisions is the need for greater consistency throughout the document. The current bylaws have varying levels of detail and concreteness and some internal contradictions. We have sought to resolve these and would like to recognize Keith Earley for providing pro bono legal services by reviewing our revisions on at least two occasions and raising powerful questions and important points.
Lest anyone thinks that bylaws revisions are only tedious, administrative details, I would like to underscore their significance. Our bylaws are the legal, foundational documents that constitute the existence of our member organization. They govern how we are structured and how we function. We take them seriously and hope that all of our members do too. Please plan to attend our Annual General Meeting on April 30th and vote. Conference registration is not required in order to participate in this meeting.
Membership Survey
The CBODN Board will also look forward to your input as we administer our membership survey next month. We are currently piloting the survey and plan to implement in late April through early May. We will use your feedback as valuable input for planning as we begin a new year on July 1st.
New Partnerships to Enhance Member Value
We are working to build partnerships with sister organizations that will increase the value of membership. For example, NTL Institute has a full menu of professional development courses and they are offering a 5% discount to CBODN members. We are working to cultivate similar partnerships and reciprocal arrangements with other organizations, including the Appreciative Inquiry DC Learning Community, DC ICF, and the Human Resources Leader's Forum.
Best regards,
Kathryn Gaines, Ph.D.
President, CBODN
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