I can create a retreat designed in consultation with each board member that accomplishes one or two major objectives the board selects, is intellectually stimulating, efficient, and fun. I achieve this by following BoardSource’s six qualities of a successful retreat:
- Realistic objectives: A board should address at most one or two major objectives, as time is limited.
- Meaningful topics: A board should avoid routine business that is better handled at its regular meetings.
- Complete inclusion: A retreat should engage the participation and input of all board members from planning to completion.
- Tailored activities: A retreat’s team-building and knowledge-enhancing activities should be tailored to the board’s culture and needs.
- Flexibility: The retreat agenda should allow time to explore issues that arise unexpectedly.
- Fun: The retreat should be relaxing and enjoyable.
I will help you set objectives by sending each board member two questionnaires and following up with a brief phone call to each member. I will provide an anonymous report of everyone’s preferences, along with our suggestions, to a retreat planning committee you will appoint. The committee will make the final decisions; this is your retreat.
Optionally, I can facilitate the planning committee’s meetings so the planning process is maximally efficient and fully inclusive.
In my report to the planning committee, I will identify any objectives from the questionnaires that seem ill-suited for a retreat.
This starts with the planning questionnaires and interviews and continues with our facilitation of all the retreat sessions. I will ensure everyone has a full and fair say by encouraging less-talkative board members to pipe up and more-talkative board members to pipe down.
Importantly, this frees your board president and association staff to participate fully in the retreat because a Fulwider Partners facilitator will run the retreat sessions.
In the questionnaires and interviews, I will ask you about the worst retreat experiences you’ve had, so we can avoid those, and the best, so we can repeat them. Learning about your board’s culture helps me advise you at the planning stages and do a better job facilitating at the retreat itself.
The agenda we design will be modular, with elements that can be shifted around or even dropped while still using our limited time efficiently and effectively.
Once again with help from those questionnaires and interviews (they keep coming up, don’t they?), I will suggest ways we can use the retreat to rest, relax, and have fun, so the retreat benefits not just the organization, but also individual board members in their daily lives.
