Racing the Mini at Thunderhill Raceway, Willows, CA

Bill in Italy (Florence that is).

From Futile to Fertile Boards

Changing a Board of Trustees From Futile to Fertile
William G. McGinnis
Two major challenges facing our community colleges these days are the difficulty boards of trustees have leading the institution and the ineffective and sometimes poor relationships between a college’s president and its board of trustees. What makes these problems difficult is the inability of colleges to select the members of their board of trustees and the unwillingness of many trustees to educate themselves in governing and leading. Therefore, college presidents and effective trustees must learn how to work around these limitations to create a high-performing board of trustees.
Often, we hear complaints about a board because the members micromanage or they are disengaged, or worse, they fail to attend board meetings at all. Moreover, when they do attend meetings, some members don’t engage in the discussions, while others practice a one-way communication style. Even worse is when board members lack an understanding of their job and fail to appreciate the struggles of college presidency.
Although these difficulties seem unmanageable and daunting, the president, with the help of involved and educated board members, can improve the performance of the board of trustees by changing the dynamics of meetings and discussions. The college president can help ensure that board members see their role as meaningful and that they give an appropriate amount of time and attention to the business of the college.
To help a board grow from futile to fertile, the president can help the board learn its role in the life of the college and in the leadership of the institution. The president can involve the board in a series of steps that can focus board attention on the future of the college and on service to the community. This paper will describe various steps a president can take with the board to reshape the board’s work and create more meaningful relationships. Frequently, board members view the president as the leader of the college and the board as the management oversight committee. By clearly articulating the areas of shared leadership and responsibility between the chief executive and the board, a president can help the board expand its involvement in generating ideas and building a vision for the future of the college. Constructing a productive, successful environment allows for a positive board response and, ultimately, a cooperative and mutually supportive relationship between the president and the board.
Change the agenda format. As mundane and simple as it may seem, changing the format of the board agenda is a first step in granting the board more time to discuss issues and generate ideas for the president to explore. Agendas dictate what a board discusses, at what length, and to what end. Thus, to control the agenda is to control the board’s work. A president should work closely with the board chair in setting the agenda. Together, they can help trustees find ways to stay connected with the college’s issues outside of regular meetings. These connections will then help the president and board chair include appropriate agenda items and facilitate a thorough understanding of the issues by the entire board. In building the agenda, the president and board chair need to work together to ensure sufficient time for board members to argue passionately about matters of critical importance. Although Robert’s Rules of Order prevail as a requirement for lock step, these rules may need to be modified to allow for open and frank discussions by the board.
Educate board members about and engage them in the agenda. Engaged cultures are characterized by candor and a willingness to challenge, and they reflect the social and work dynamics of a high-performing team. By facilitating such an environment, a president can help the board evolve into such a team. Though board meetings can be used to educate members about an issue, this education should occur outside the board meeting. This allows more of the board’s meeting time to be spent on discussion and action. For example, board reports can be recorded and delivered via podcast or webcast between meetings. The board and the president might also communicate questions and comments about such issues through email, which could save meetings for the real work of the board.
Develop issue-centered agendas. In addition, the transformed board agendas could also be focused on a specific issue at various times during the year. As an example, at the start of each year, the president could work with the board as it develops three or four top priorities, such as direction, student success, staff development, and succession planning. The board chair and president could then place each topic at the top of the agenda for at least one meeting during the year. This would turn staff and board attention to this top priority, would allow for a full discussion of the issue, and could lead to the adoption of new policy that would shape the college’s future.
Focus on the vision. Although changing the agenda and expected board activities during a meeting can help, these actions alone will not fully change the board. Like most quests for change, board building begins with a vision. The president and board chair can help focus the board on the future by steering commentary and discussions properly. The president can work with the board to establish and maintain an overarching level of engagement based on annual expectations and ground rules for board meetings and for trustees’ roles relative to the president’s role. The ground rules should describe the rules of decorum and the heart of the board’s efforts, ensuring that the board concentrates on the “what” rather than the “how.” One of the most effective ways to forge a high-performing board is to call on the trustees to connect with something larger than themselves. The college’s vision can serve as this larger goal for the board to attain. By involving the board in collaborative development of the college’s vision and mission statements, a president can also help differing trustees build bridges and create effective working relationships.
Establish trust. Trust and respect among board members is critical to the successful building of an engaged board culture, and trust and respect between the board and the chief executive officer is equally crucial. By agreeing to focus on the future of the college, the college president and board chair can help forge the necessary trust and respect among members. This open and respectful environment is maintained by retaining the healthy social dynamics of interaction, as well as the competence, integrity, and constructive involvement of all trustees. Periodically rotating trustees through various small groups and committees as well as board leadership will also broaden interaction. The impact will be the prevention or elimination of polarizing factors. The president, board chair, and trustees all need to do everything in their power to prevent division among board members.
Communicate appropriately and adequately. The president can also inspire trust and respect from the board by keeping trustees informed, in a timely manner, about college issues. Varying desires for involvement by each trustee may make this difficult. Basically, there are two equally effective ways of keeping a board in the dark and creating an environment of distrust: (1) provide the board with too little information and then surprise members with new details after they’ve made a decision; and (2) give trustees too much information, which leads to a lack of understanding. Therefore, it is critical that the president not only assist the board in communicating its information needs, but also appropriately adjust the information load going from the chief executive’s office to the trustees. Typically boards subsist on just two sources of information: (1) retrospective data on the college’s performance and operations, and (2) presentations by management, particularly by the president, whose articulation of the future and interpretation of financials significantly shape the boards’ views. It is the president’s responsibility to ensure that board members receive the right information at the right time and in the right format to perform their duties. The best boards, in collaboration with their president, design processes to deliver formal information that combines both leading and lagging performance indicators associated with their goals.
Facilitate board accountability for outcomes. In education, leading indicators may be factors that predict future successes or failures of college programs. For example, if students who complete their core English and math courses in the first two semesters of college graduate at a significantly higher rate than students taking such classes later in their college career, then the performance data for successful students completing math and English in their first year can be used as a leading indicator of graduation success. This new accountability makes trustees responsible for outcomes. They can best fulfill this responsibility for results, not by dictating the details of assessing performance, but by questioning performance results, and especially their use. Trustees need to ask college administrators critical questions and insist on clear answers. By providing sufficient information about college issues, the college president builds trust between the chief executive and board.
Expand the board’s role beyond its traditional work. The nature of the board’s work also determines board effectiveness. Unless they are offered the opportunity to lead, boards will typically act in a fiduciary manner. Structuring all the board’s work in a fiduciary manner will create the disengaged environment college presidents need to avoid. Presidents will find that a board locked into operating this way will have a difficult time leading. Instead, trustees will become comfortable in a leadership role as they have more opportunities and successes in that role. In some cases, presidents, board chairs, and trustees have added the board’s involvement in the college’s planning process to the traditional fiduciary work. Though these efforts are beneficial, they still limit the board’s involvement to working a few times a year on developing goals, creating time schedules, and measuring performance. Planning does afford the board the opportunity to focus on the future, but alone it is not enough. Realistically, boards need to perform certain fiduciary functions and provide leadership planning for the college. However, the president and board chair can help minimize these functions through the use of consent agendas and board communication outside of the meeting, and the inclusion of leadership work. Such work may not be possible on all board agendas, but the goal should be less fiduciary work and more leadership. As an example, look back at your board’s last 12 agendas and count how many opportunities the board had to act in a fiduciary manner, in a strategic planning manner, and then in a leadership manner.
Provide opportunities for thoughtful reflection and discussion. To truly lead a college, the board needs to have opportunities to question and formulate options before making final decisions. The president can plan periodic board retreats or organize open discussions to create opportunities for board leadership. By offering trustees the opportunity to act as leaders, the president helps board members move beyond micromanagement to the big-picture business of the college. If, for example, trustees are exploring the college’s sustainability efforts, the president may find that the board’s views differ from those of the faculty or administration; indeed, the board’s views can lead the college to explore new concepts. In this example, the board could identify the college’s largest use of paper products as the sale and limited use of textbooks, causing the college to investigate eliminating the use of textbooks to reduce the waste stream generated by its normal business. Such a discussion may never arise if the trustees are not afforded the opportunity to generate new ideas for the development of college programs.
Benefits of a high-performing board. Uncovering the hidden value of an organization’s people will increase its chance of success, which is particularly true in a world where intellectual capital and knowledge are increasing in our colleges. A high-performing board will draw a high-performing president who can then appoint and support a high-performing staff. Together, the president and the board can stimulate the intellectual capital of college staff and faculty to create new ways of doing the college’s business. Knowing what needs to be done is not sufficient, and neither is talking about what needs to be done. A high-performing board of trustees moves the organization ahead to increased and improved achievement by working closely with the president to build a strategic plan and to enable staff to implement it effectively. To document its effectiveness and help ensure accountability, a high-performing board also ensures that its own performance is measured. The president facilitates this kind of board leadership by engaging the board in the overarching business of the college.When given the opportunity to lead and have a meaningful role in the future of the college, the trustees can come together to form a high-performing board. However, the success of a board is not only the responsibility of each board member; it is also the responsibility of the college president.

Turning Trustees into Leadership teams

Turning Trustee Boards into Leadership Teams
by
William G. McGinnis
Trustee, Butte-Glenn Community College District

Over the years I have had the opportunity to observe a number elected Trustee Boards and found some to resemble my son’s T-Ball team. As an example, the outfielders were typical more interested in the grass or a butterfly than the game and were startled to see the ball actually approaching them. Likewise some trustees, even at the Board meetings, are absent and not connected to the discussion or the actions of the College. In T-ball no one keeps score so all the kids think they are winners. Again, many Boards don’t keep score of their College’s academic performance and only go on hearsay to determine if the college is doing well. Sometimes the T-ball players get into arguments over things they are not sure of and again, Board members have done similar things including name calling and finger pointing. If this were only the rare situation, there would be no reason for trying to develop activities that Boards could employ to improve their performance. Unfortunately, the rare case is a well functioning team of Board members focused on the academic performance of the College.

The time has come to move our T-ball like Trustee Boards into major league teams. To do so, we must first acknowledge that electing people to form a Board is not the best method of team building. To the contrary, often people run for a Board to change the way it conducts its business, which in turn divides the Board rather than builds a team. Understanding this situation, an effective Board will immediately follow an election of new members with a team building retreat. The basic orientation of a new trustee as to the role of the Board, the operations of the College, and the mission of higher education is not sufficient to build an effective Board.

The following team building goals and programs are adopted from Patrick Lencioni’s books on Team Building for Leaders and Managers. While Mr. Lenciono’s focus is on appointed teams in the private sector, the concepts are just as critical for Trustee Boards.

Team Goal #1 – Build Trust. The basic building block of an effective team is to build trust between the Board members and between the Board and the College President (for this article the President will hereinafter be referred to as the CEO). In order to build such trust quickly and effectively the Board needs to meet in an informal retreat setting in order to get to know each other personally. The Board members need learn to be comfortable with each other in an open and honest manner without the fear of failure or weakness. People who aren’t afraid to admit the truth about themselves are not going to engage in the kind of political behavior that wastes everybody’s time and energy. If any Board member continues to take advantage of other Board members in a manner that is not supportive, the Board will not be able to function in an open and honest manner. The key ingredient in building trust is not time, rather it is courage, the courage to expose yourself to the team and then to be honest and supportive of the team. In order to facilitate a trust building discussion, the Board and the CEO should agree upon a facilitator to help lead the retreat discussions that first will explore the backgrounds of all the team members through storytelling of personal histories. These should be relatively brief stories but detailed enough to identify three characteristics of the person’s childhood and the associated challenges. While this may sound too touchy-feely for an elected Board, it is critical to building bridges between the members. The first and most important ground rule of this exercise of course is that the discussion remain confidential within the team. Any team member using such information later especially in an open Board meeting will end any trust that may have been created through the retreat. Another exercise associated with this initial session is to have the Board members each take a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator analysis and have the results available for the Board retreat. Helping the Board members understand the personality types and thus the needs of each of the members will help the team better know each other. Knowing how to talk to each other in a supportive and informative manner will help the Board work more effectively together. A discussion of these results can also be very helpful to the CEO in learning how to best communicate with each of the Board members, especially the new members. While these steps can be used to start building trust, the process is never really complete as it must be maintained and supported over time. A breakdown in the team effort will ruin the trust already established and force the Board to start over again with the process.

Team Goal #2 – Reduce the Fear of Conflict. Normally when we associate conflict on a Board we assume that such conflict is destructive, and it occurs on Boards where people do not trust each another. This is because when the members do engage in a passionate debate, they do so with the goal of winning the argument. The members don’t typically listen to other ideas but rather look for flaws in order to defeat the ideas of other and win the argument. What we need to understand and accept is that conflict can be healthy for a Board to engage in since such discussions are needed to affect change. If a Board remains in its comfort zone forever, no changes with ever result. Push a Board too far out of its comfort zone and fear will take over. The zone between comfort and fear is the level of conflict needed to create healthy change in an organization. Board members like any other team are fearful of conflict as they are concerned that such conflict will be destructive rather than constructive. However, on a Board where the trust level is high, the members will not be fearful of debate as they realize such debate as trying to reach the best goal and not trying to win the argument. On highly effective Boards, members do not hold back their opinions but rather offer them in hopes of crafting a solution that will take all factors into account. In order to help the Board improve its conflict resolution it is necessary for the Board members to know the conflict profile of each other. Adoption of and acceptance of Ground Rules for Board meeting discussions will help the Board be open to such discussions as they will not fear being taken advantage of in a public meeting. Board meetings without conflict are boring and typically referred to as rubber stamp meetings. Board meetings in which conflict does arise in a health manner will result in the Board assuming a leadership position and bringing positive change to the College. The role of the CEO is critical in this effort as the CEO needs to bring to the Board the reason to care about the issue at hand and by raising the level of anxiety concerning the matter and how things can go terribly wrong for the College if the wrong decision is made. Also critical in these situations is the need to retain the focus of the Board on the issue and not on winning the argument/debate. A positive focused debate of the issue without the interjection of personal attacks is a must. Even among the best of Boards, conflict at times will be uncomfortable but by reinforcing the positive aspects of such debate, a positive impact is possible.

Team Goal #3 – Foster and Provide Commitment. Once the debate has been completed and a decision is at hand, the commitment by all the Trustees on the Board and the CEO is necessary to bring about success. Commitment will be defined for the purpose of this article as a group of intelligent, driven individuals buying into a decision precisely when they don’t all naturally agree. Board members need to know that their perspective has had an opportunity to be heard, understood, considered, and explained within the context of the ultimate decision but not necessarily adopted. The patience of the full Board is important to allow each Board member the opportunity to express their view and to spend sufficient time considering such views. The practice of limiting Board comments to positive and/or constructive views concerning recommendations can help forestall adversarial debate. Once a common decision is obtained, the Board needs to assure that the CEO as well as the full Board is clear about all aspects of the decision. Clarity, among all the Board members and the CEO, is critical to the success of a decision. The Board chair can greatly benefit this process by readdressing the decision before the vote is taken by the Board and then following the vote by restating the decision to the CEO and allowing the CEO an opportunity to ask for clarity of the decision. Another tactic that can be used to assure clarity is to restate the decision and align it with a goal of the College. This not only assures clarity among the Board but it also draws attention to how the decision aligns with the mission and/or goals of the College. In order to do this properly, the Board must be familiar with the College’s goals and strategic plan. These can be published in the agenda packet for each meeting or printed on a document observable in the Board room. A final note on commitment, although all Board members will never agree 100% on all decisions, a 100% commitment to the decision of the Board is needed and should be expected of each Board member.

Team Goal #4 – Be Accountable and Hold Others Accountable. Accountability is not only the willingness to remind one another when the Board and/or individual Board members are not living up to the desired performance standards but also to hold oneself responsible as well. In the case of a Board of Trustees, the Board Chair has the primary responsibility to lead this effort. As an example, if a few of the Board members are engaged in a heated debate, the Chair needs to step into the middle of the situation and remind the members of the standards of conduct (ground rules), the primary goals of the College and the desired goals of the Board. Another example is when a Board member is disengaged from a discussion and perhaps is reading a book or doing their e-mail on a blackberry, the Board Chair needs to bring the discussion to a halt and invite the disengaged member to participate in the discussion and possibly remind the member of the Board’s adopted ground rules they have all committed to previously. Contrary to popular thought, it is when the Board members stop holding each other accountable that they begin to lose respect for each other and over time, the Board begins to splinter. The importance here is to provide constructive feedback on issues being discussed and to have full participation of the Board on all the issues. The variety of opinions of the various Board members will assist in the development of a comprehensive decision that is more productive than decisions made by a minority of the board. The Board, through a follow up retreat held after four to six months of working together, can work on building accountability through exercises intended to draw out the aspects demonstrate positive as well as problematic behavior of the Board Chair in leading the Board. The exercise will also include the Board Chair commenting on similar aspects for each of the Board members. This exercise could also be used as part of the annual evaluation of the CEO if sufficient trust is present between the CEO and the Board, for the CEO to comment on Board issues. In order to have this exercise be successful, it is necessary for the Board to follow up in six months with a review of the comments made and a Board self-evaluation as to whether any improvements or decline have occurred since the initial meeting. This process would fit well with the Board’s annual self-evaluation process. The final aspect of this issue is to have the Board throughout the year, revisit its goals and the College’s goals to be aware of progress, barriers to progress, and whether any changes need to be made to policy. The conversations of the Board regarding performance need to focus on the goals especially those associated with Student Learning and Student Success. Again, to have a strong Board, the members must not only be accountable but they must hold each other accountable. The Board Chair is the key player in this effort and must be willing to confront difficult situations.

Team Goal #5 – Focus on Results. The work of the Board is only as good as the results of the College. Having wonderful Board meetings is meaningless, if the College is not performing well. The Board, through an annual retreat, is responsible for establishing goals for the College, itself and the CEO. These goals should only be adopted if the Board and the CEO can agree upon a set of measurements for each of the goals and a timetable for reporting the performance on each goal. Some Boards have started using a scorecard for reporting on each of the goals supported by various computer software packages available to assist in this effort. The Board Chair and CEO during the orientation of a new Board member need to acquaint the new member with the various goals and the associated measures and the time table for reporting. They also need to remind the new member of the schedule for the adoption of new or revised goals and familiarize the new member on how the new member will have input into the goal setting process. We often hear of complaints concerning micromanaging by Board members, such micromanaging can be prevented by the Board focusing on the results and not the process of achieving the results. The “how to do it” issues are the responsibility of the CEO and staff and Board’s attention should be on goal setting and results. The use of a scorecard and the periodic reporting of results will assist the Board in retaining its focus on such matters. The results on which Boards need to focus must be linked to the College’s mission and vision (or strategic plan if one has been established for the College), with the majority of the measures linked to the College’s mission. As an example, if the College provides educational services for transfer preparation to universities, the Board should have a results based measure describing the College’s performance in this area. The measures must be agreed upon by the full Board and the CEO as being meaningful and linked to the goals, mission and vision of the College. A trap to be avoided is when a Board member or more attempts to lobby for their own constituents rather than for the entire College. The result of such lobbying creates a competition for resources and attention rather than creating a collaborative situation. In summary, the best measure of a great Board of Trustees is that it accomplishes the results it set out to achieve. To do this, the Board needs to remain focused on the desired results by keeping them visible to the Board and the CEO throughout the year.

Conclusion: A college’s Board of Trustees and CEO willing to spend the time necessary after the election or appointment of a new member to first build trust among the Board members and with the CEO, then to remove the fear of conflict, followed by a shared willingness to commit to the goals of the Board and College, including holding each other and the CEO accountable, and finally by focusing the Board’s attention on the College’s results will become an outstanding and high performing Board of Trustees. Such a Board not only benefits their college but also their students and ultimately the communities they serve. Remember to provide service to others above self.

Lessons for the Post American World
by
Fareed Zakaria


The recently published book entitled: The Post American World by Fareed Zakaria raises interesting challenges for the American society and more importantly for our systems of higher education. Changes in our society often gather force in our colleges and universities and the change that will be necessary in the future requires that our institutions begin now to acquaint our students with these trends and America’s possible responses.

Primarily, we need to bring about an attitude change in our students regarding America’s role in future international relations and the world society. The author illustrates that gone are the days when America leads the world in a number of factors and more importantly our sole super-power status is no longer seen as the moral authority to serve as the world’s top cop. The importance of America’s economic status will be challenged in the future by a variety of countries most importantly China, Russia, Brazil, India, the European Market, and potentially Mexico. As America’s leadership dwindles in comparison, the attitude of our country needs to embrace is one of becoming a team player and leader rather than the control commander (or the decider) of future events.

The challenge for higher education, therefore, becomes one of embracing the global changes and finding ways for our students to learn how to effectively participate and remain an effective partner. While these changes will take time to accomplish, we cannot afford to debate the future but rather begin now to make changes in our system of learning.

To begin with, we as educational leaders need to live what we teach. Our first step should be to develop a method of measuring ourselves on an international basis. As other countries ramp up their spending on higher education and strive for increased quality in their institutions, we can no longer afford to pretend that our institutions sit at the pinnacle without fear of competition. As our economy has learned, just about everything is now in competition with on a global basis and so should our institutions of higher education. As our federal government has closed the door to international students entering our institutions for fear of terrorism, we are finding the best and the brightest from other countries seeking educational opportunities elsewhere – thus turning off the brain drain from their countries to the detriment of America.

Our second step should include the introduction of global perspectives of current events affecting our society into our classrooms. This can easily be accomplished through such sources as I-Tunes U where students can listen to and sometimes view lectures on topics also being taught in our classrooms, thus bringing about a broader perspective and a richer understanding of the subject. For that matter, as other countries debate issues in higher education, we as leaders in our country should also be exposed to these concepts by also listening and learning from their debates. If we are to retain our educational ranking on a global basis, we will need to learn what others are thinking and doing. As an example the efforts in Denmark and Great Britain to establish quality improvement indicators and programs for their systems of higher education should be part of our training for trustees and presidents.

Another source and potentially required reading for our students could be the web sites for newspapers from around the world. Regular reading of the Daily Times of India or other English versions of global news would provide our students with perspectives challenging the traditional American views of issues affecting our world. Thus providing the opportunity for our students to learn how to participate in the world as a team member and potentially a team leader rather than only advocating for the American perspective on issues as handed down by American television.

As we introduce our students to global perspectives, we need to introduce the world to our future leaders by getting more of our students to spend time in other countries. Our government needs to step up in this matter and provide funding to allow for international experiences for all college students. This will actually have a dual impact of allowing people in other countries to be introduced to our citizens other than our soldiers as well as allowing our students to have a better understanding of the competition they will face in their future employment. I experienced this first hand during an opportunity to provide training to communities in Kazakhstan as I came back with a better understanding how their country is poised to become an economic power-house in central Asia with a budding democracy. Instead of invading Iraq to spread democracy, we could have been more effective by increasing support of these beginning steps of democracy in Kazakhstan as it borders China, Russia and thru the Caspian Sea, Iran as well as being very close to Afghanistan. Kazakhstan has oil reserves that are for the most part yet to be tapped but have the possibility of being rather competitive with Iraq. China, Russia, and Europe have recognized the importance of this country and are developing economic ties to assure access to these oil reserves. During my visit three years ago, America’s reputation was still repairable if we were to develop educational partnerships and opportunities for their people to have a greater understanding of the democratic processes. We as educational leaders can do our part by increasing the requirements and opportunities for our students to spend a semester or a year in another country irrespective of the educational program the students are involved in. In community colleges, we need to provide the opportunity for our career education students to also go abroad, as example, sending building trades students to a country in South America to both learn about their building practices and to help improve facilities where needed could have a dual purpose.

When I started my education in a military institution, much was made of the individual leader, the command and control concept of leadership. As I was retiring from my role in university administration I looked back and acknowledged that command and control leadership had given way to team development and leadership. I was no longer expected to be the all knowing leader rather to be the person able to draw out the expertise of my diverse leadership team to improve the performance of our institution. These same management concepts are required in business and government. The future as described by Mr. Zakaria, will take this concept a step further by requiring our thinking to be globally diverse and include a more shared governance approach to decision making. While the process may take longer, it provides each of the players with a stake in the future both the reward as well as the responsibility. Our institutions need to both lead by this example as well as educate our students on its advantages and how to improve its effectiveness.

Finally, we need to re-engineer our concept of higher education as the ivory tower behind ivy covered walls only accessible by those deemed worthy enough by barriers that we have imposed to create the exclusivity of our institution. America’s success has been based upon the opportunities we have offered to anyone to become a success. As higher education becomes much more important as the ticket to such success, we need to assure that anyone can access such opportunity and become a success. The change has to occur from inside our ivy walls thru the tearing down of our towers and creating instead a stronger link (a supply line if you will) between the elementary and secondary schools of our nation and our higher education institutions. We can no longer afford to sit in our towers and look down on these other systems of learning and tell them to bring us better students. We have a shared responsibility to improve the quality of students and create the opportunities for all students to access higher education. Programs such as Early College High Schools, Career training starting in high school but thru community colleges, basic skills training available for middle school and high school students by community colleges, and improved re-entry programs coordinated with employers for older adults are a few of the improvements we should be looking to make.

As the author points out in his book, dollars spent on military solutions to threats against our country may be politically popular but they will not solve the problems. Our country’s role in the future world will be benefited by better educating our students on how to partner with other societies and countries to make better decisions of global issues. The defeat of terrorism can best be accomplished by improving the economic opportunities throughout the world and developing relationships based upon mutual respect and cooperation. Sending 300,000 students abroad rather than 300,000 troops is less costly and more effective in improving the global respect of America and our ability to remain a participant of economic leaders in the future.


The Second World

By Parag Khanna

The lessons from this book for community college trustees are described in the following summary:

First and foremost, education of our nation matters. We need to do all we can to bring in students and assure their success by obtaining as much education as possible. Our nation faces the real possibility of losing its middle class and moving to a society of only two classes, upper and lower.

As we work towards improving the education of our nation we need to also ramp up our economic development activities as job development/opportunities for our graduates also matters. We need to do all we can to help retain and reinforce a strong middle class and to reduce unemployment and under-employment especially among the lower wage earners in our nation.

As we stress improvement in education, we need to eliminate the silos of our current educational systems and develop a better link with the K-12 systems as well as the university systems. As our colleges experience the pressure of the majority of students entering our colleges unprepared to perform college level English and Math the success of the students is at a greater risk. We need to help change this scenario by development cooperative programs to improve the academic preparedness of our entering students.

While the above ideas are inward looking, our colleges must also create a world view and context for all our academic programs. Decision making can no longer be accomplished on only what is best for our nation or for our national interests. We need to have leaders aware of and involved in a global context of decision making. Our economy is no longer just a local or even a national economy but rather global and our students need this understanding in order to succeed in the future. By having our students travel and study throughout the world enlightens them on a global basis but also acquaints other cultures and peoples with our future leaders.

Finally in order to have higher education available to all in our society, we need a better financial aid system that will allow students to acquire the highest level of education they can without the adverse impact of future indebtedness that carries on for decades. Potentially, we may wish to devise a system whereby employers hiring our educated students will be responsible for most of the educational costs.

How Can We Keep Our CEO on Our Team

How Can We Keep Our CEO on Our Team

by
William G. McGinnis
Trustee, Butte-Glenn Community College District


Retirements and turnover among California’s College Presidents and Chancellors (defined as CEOs hereinafter) are at an all time high. These opportunities for professional advancement and/or enhanced economic packages are encouraging incumbent CEOs to change institutions and create more turnover. This situation creates a challenge for Trustee Boards trying to retain their incumbent CEOs. Added to this situation is the fact that over half of our College Districts cannot compete on an economic basis with the larger and wealthier districts and the high costs associated with recruitment and employing a new CEO adversely impact any district.

To respond to this challenge, Trustee Boards must first realize that most CEOs move due to factors other than salary. Instead, the best method of retaining key staff is not merely a matter of paying a competitive salary but more importantly by creating and maintaining a professional and supportive working relationship between the Board and the CEO. Organizations such as the Gallup Poll have conducted numerous studies that indicate the reason people stay or leave a job is directly related to the relationship the employee has with their immediate supervisor and the way they are treated by the organization. Futurists are telling us that the younger employees will change jobs on a frequent basis and are more interested in personal relationships than employment relationships. By understanding these factors, a Board can take proactive steps to create the kind of work environment that will be conducive to retaining their key employees as well as creating a professional environment for their Board. It must be also understood that people often run for a Board seat to change the way the College conducts its business, which in turn may divide the Board and the CEO rather than build a positive work environment or worse to change a positive work climate to a hostile environment.

This paper is intended to help Trustees understanding both the impact they have situation and, more importantly, how they can work towards creating a professional work environment. The secondary but also very important impacts of such positive actions will be to create a high performing Trustee Board and College and to retain key staff for a longer period of time. To achieve these goals, an effective Board will immediately follow an election of new members with a team building retreat. However, the basic orientation of a new trustee as to the role of the Board, the operations of the College, and the mission of the California Community Colleges alone is not sufficient to build an effective Board.

An effective Board understands that additional team building will be needed over the course of the first six months to a year in order to bring the Board together as a high performing team and to retain a professional work environment for their key staff. It is also critical that these team building exercises include the College’s CEO in combination with the full Trustee Board. The following team building goals and programs can be used by a Board to help forge their team. These programs are adopted from Patrick Lencioni’s books on Team Building for Leaders and Managers. While Mr. Lenciono’s focus is on appointed teams in the private sector, the concepts are just as critical for Trustee Boards.

Team Goal #1 – Build Trust. The basic building block of an effective team is to build trust between the Board members and between the Board and the College’s CEO. In order to build such trust quickly and effectively the Board needs to meet shortly after any change in membership or a change of CEOs. This initial meeting should be in an informal retreat setting in order to get to know each other personally. The Board members need learn to be comfortable with each other and the CEO in an open and honest manner without the fear of failure or weakness. People who aren’t afraid to admit the truth about themselves are not going to engage in the kind of political behavior that wastes everybody’s time and energy. If any Board member continues to take advantage of other Board members in a manner that is not supportive, the Board will not be able to function in an open and honest manner. The key ingredient in building trust is not time, rather it is courage; the courage to expose yourself to the team and then to be honest and supportive of the team.

In order to facilitate a trust building discussion, the Board and the CEO should agree upon a facilitator to help lead the retreat discussions that first will explore the backgrounds of all the team members through storytelling of personal histories. These should be relatively brief stories but detailed enough to identify three characteristics of the person’s childhood and the associated challenges. While this may sound too touchy-feely for an elected Board, it is critical to building bridges between the members. The first and most important ground rule of this exercise of course is that the discussion remain confidential within the team. Any team member using such information later especially in an open Board meeting will end any trust that may have been created through the retreat.

Another exercise associated with this initial session is to have the Board members each take a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator analysis and have the results available for the Board retreat. Helping the Board members understand the personality types and thus the needs of each of the members will help the team better know each other. Knowing how to talk to each other in a supportive and informative manner will help the Board work more effectively together. A discussion of these results can also be very helpful to the CEO in learning how to best communicate with each of the Board members, especially the new members. While these steps can be used to start building trust, the process is never really complete as it must be maintained and supported over time. A breakdown in the team effort will ruin the trust already established and force the Board to start over again with the process.

Team Goal #2 – Reduce the Fear of Conflict. Normally when we associate conflict on a Board we assume that such conflict is destructive, and it occurs on Boards where people do not trust each another. This is because when the members do engage in a passionate debate, they do so with the goal of winning the argument. The members don’t typically listen to other ideas but rather look for flaws in order to defeat the ideas of other and win the argument. What we need to understand and accept is that conflict can be healthy for a Board to engage in since such discussions are needed to affect change. If a Board remains in its comfort zone forever, no changes with ever result. Push a Board too far out of its comfort zone and fear will take over. The zone between comfort and fear is the level of conflict needed to create healthy change in an organization. Board members like any other team are fearful of conflict as they are concerned that such conflict will be destructive rather than constructive. However, on a Board where the trust level is high, the members will not be fearful of debate as they realize such debate as trying to reach the best goal and not trying to win the argument. On highly effective Boards, members do not hold back their opinions but rather offer them in hopes of crafting a solution that will take all factors into account.

In order to help the Board improve its conflict resolution it is necessary for the Board members to know the conflict profile of each other. Adoption of and acceptance of Ground Rules for Board meeting discussions will help the Board be open to such discussions as they will not fear being taken advantage of in a public meeting. Board meetings without conflict are boring and typically referred to as rubber stamp meetings. Board meetings in which conflict does arise in a health manner will result in the Board assuming a leadership position and bringing positive change to the College. The role of the CEO is critical in this effort as the CEO needs to bring to the Board the reason to care about the issue at hand and by raising the level of anxiety concerning the matter and how things can go terribly wrong for the College if the wrong decision is made. Also critical in these situations is the need to retain the focus of the Board on the issue and not on winning the argument/debate. A positive focused debate of the issue without the interjection of personal attacks is a must. Even among the best of Boards, conflict at times will be uncomfortable but by reinforcing the positive aspects of such debate, a positive impact is possible.

Team Goal #3 – Foster and Provide Commitment. Once the debate has been completed and a decision is at hand, the commitment by all the Trustees on the Board and the CEO is necessary to bring about success. Commitment will be defined for the purpose of this article as a group of intelligent, driven individuals buying into a decision precisely when they don’t all naturally agree. Board members need to know that their perspective has had an opportunity to be heard, understood, considered, and explained within the context of the ultimate decision but not necessarily adopted. The patience of the full Board is important to allow each Board member the opportunity to express their view and to spend sufficient time considering such views. The practice of limiting Board comments to positive and/or constructive views concerning recommendations can help forestall adversarial debate. Once a common decision is obtained, the Board needs to assure that the CEO as well as the full Board is clear about all aspects of the decision. Clarity, among all the Board members and the CEO, is critical to the success of a decision. The Board chair can greatly benefit this process by readdressing the decision before the vote is taken by the Board and then following the vote by restating the decision to the CEO and allowing the CEO an opportunity to ask for clarity of the decision.

Another tactic that can be used to assure clarity is to restate the decision and align it with a goal of the College. This not only assures clarity among the Board but it also draws attention to how the decision aligns with the mission and/or goals of the College. In order to do this properly, the Board must be familiar with the College’s goals and strategic plan. These can be published in the agenda packet for each meeting or printed on a document observable in the Board room. A final note on commitment, although all Board members will never agree 100% on all decisions, but a 100% commitment to the decision of the Board is needed and should be expected of each Board member. Such team work creates a positive work environment for the CEO and the College to succeed within.

Team Goal #4 – Be Accountable and Hold Others Accountable. Accountability is not only the willingness to remind one another when the Board and/or individual Board members are not living up to the desired performance standards but also to hold oneself responsible as well. In the case of a Board of Trustees, the Board Chair has the primary responsibility to lead this effort. As an example, if a few of the Board members are engaged in a heated debate, the Chair needs to step into the middle of the situation and remind the members of the standards of conduct (ground rules), the primary goals of the College and the desired goals of the Board. Another example is when a Board member is disengaged from a discussion and perhaps is reading a book or doing their e-mail on a blackberry, the Board Chair needs to bring the discussion to a halt and invite the disengaged member to participate in the discussion and possibly remind the member of the Board’s adopted ground rules they have all committed to previously. Contrary to popular thought, it is when the Board members stop holding each other accountable that they begin to lose respect for each other and over time, the Board begins to splinter. The importance here is to provide constructive feedback on issues being discussed and to have full participation of the Board on all the issues. The variety of opinions of the various Board members will assist in the development of a comprehensive decision that is more productive than decisions made by a minority of the board.

The Board, through a follow up retreat held after four to six months of working together, can work on building accountability through exercises intended to draw out the aspects demonstrate positive as well as problematic behavior of the Board Chair in leading the Board. The exercise will also include the Board Chair commenting on similar aspects for each of the Board members. This exercise could also be used as part of the annual evaluation of the CEO if sufficient trust is present between the CEO and the Board, for the CEO to comment on Board issues. In order to have this exercise be successful, it is necessary for the Board to follow up in six months with a review of the comments made and a Board self-evaluation as to whether any improvements or decline have occurred since the initial meeting. This process would fit well with the Board’s annual self-evaluation process. The final aspect of this issue is to have the Board throughout the year, revisit its goals and the College’s goals to be aware of progress, barriers to progress, and whether any changes need to be made to policy. The conversations of the Board regarding performance need to focus on the goals especially those associated with Student Learning and Student Success. Again, to have a strong Board, the members must not only be accountable but they must hold each other as well as the CEO accountable. The Board Chair is the key player in this effort and must be willing to confront difficult situations. Through such accountability, discussions between the Board and the CEO can be focused on key college issues and not items that would create a hostile work environment for the College’s key staff.

Team Goal #5 – Focus on Results. The work of the Board is only as good as the results of the College. Having wonderful Board meetings is meaningless, if the College is not performing well. The Board, through an annual retreat, is responsible for establishing goals for the College, itself and the CEO. These goals should only be adopted if the Board and the CEO can agree upon a set of measurements for each of the goals and a timetable for reporting the performance on each goal. Some Boards have started using a scorecard for reporting on each of the goals supported by various computer software packages available to assist in this effort. The Board Chair and CEO during the orientation of a new Board member need to acquaint the new member with the various goals and the associated measures and the time table for reporting. They also need to remind the new member of the schedule for the adoption of new or revised goals and familiarize the new member on how the new member will have input into the goal setting process. We often hear of complaints concerning micromanaging by Board members, such micromanaging can be prevented by the Board focusing on the results and not the process of achieving the results. The “how to do it” issues are the responsibility of the CEO and staff and Board’s attention should be on goal setting and results. The use of a scorecard and the periodic reporting of results will assist the Board in retaining its focus on such matters. The results on which Boards need to focus must be linked to the College’s mission and vision (or strategic plan if one has been established for the College), with the majority of the measures linked to the College’s mission. As an example, if the College provides educational services for transfer preparation to universities, the Board should have a results based measure describing the College’s performance in this area. The measures must be agreed upon by the full Board and the CEO as being meaningful and linked to the goals, mission and vision of the College. A trap to be avoided is when a Board member or more attempts to lobby for their own constituents rather than for the entire College. The result of such lobbying creates a competition for resources and attention rather than creating a collaborative situation. In summary, the best measure of a great Board of Trustees is that it accomplishes the results it set out to achieve. To do this, the Board needs to remain focused on the desired results by keeping them visible to the Board and the CEO throughout the year.

Conclusion: A community college’s Board of Trustees and CEO willing to spend the time necessary after the election or appointment of a new member to first build trust among the Board members and with the CEO, then to remove the fear of conflict, followed by a shared willingness to commit to the goals of the Board and College, including holding each other and the CEO accountable, and finally by focusing the Board’s attention on the College’s results will become an outstanding and high performing Board of Trustees. Such a Board not only benefits their college but also their students and ultimately the communities they serve. In addition, a CEO will be reluctant to leave such a positive and productive work environment as such situations are limited and can bring about outstanding results. By focusing on providing service to others above self a Board can attract and retain a high performing CEO.


To reduce the CEO’s stress it is important for the Board to assure the following:

1) That the Board understands the difference between big and small issues and not react in the same manner to each, rather let the small things be resolved through a smaller reaction and focus the larger responses on the larger issues.
2) Allow for the CEO to be in control, undermining the CEO by attempting to micromanage the college will lead to stress and distrust between the CEO and the Board.
3) Recognize the wins of the college and give credit to the CEO where appropriate.
4) Allow for the CEO to have the opportunity to vent their frustrations in a non-threatening situation, either with the Board or with peers. The most critical item is to allow for the frustrations to be released by the CEO.
5) Finally and most important, develop a social relationship with the CEO by caring for the CEO as a person and allow for the CEO to develop a network of friends that the CEO can go to for support.
These steps can have such a positive impact upon the CEO that the CEO will choose to stay rather than leave even if more money is being offered.

Thoughts from the World is Flat book

The Global Challenge for Higher Education

William G. McGinnis

The recently published book entitled: “The World is Flat”, authored by Thomas L. Friedman, describes both the history of recent global events that the author maintains have flattened the world as well as describes the steps U.S. businesses and our federal government need to take in order to remain competitive on an international basis. The events described in the book as well as the recommendations provide implications for America’s system of higher education as well. The major global challenges for America’s Higher Education are basically:

1. Increase the number of students in higher education.
2. Improve the education of such students.
3. Graduate more students.
4. Graduate the students faster, and
5. Provide the graduates with a global vision.

The following describes Friedman’s recommendations for corporate America in order to remain globally competitive and my suggestions for America’s higher education to consider in order to remain first in the world.

Recommendations:

1) “When the world goes flat -- and you are feeling flattened – reach for a shovel and dig inside yourself. Don’t try to build walls.” The implication for the U.S.’s higher education system will come from competition from private universities and colleges as well as from international universities, such as the British University. The competition with public colleges and universities will be not only for students but also for faculty, grant funding and prestige. Higher education needs to address this challenge rather than to seek governmental restrictions to build trade barriers. This will require our traditional models of higher education services to be modified to educate students capable of competing on a global basis. Additionally, we need to look to develop links with High Schools and Middle Schools in order to better prepare and motivate their students. Rankings of American universities and colleges, while helpful, should not be limited to just other American universities. Instead we need to develop and report on an international ranking system. This is because our methods of delivery of educational services and the quality of our graduates (our output) will be evaluated by both students and their potential employers based upon global competition. Therefore, higher education needs to develop and support an international rankings system. Another example of such competition is the enrollment of high school students in web offered university classes that allow high school students to receive college credits and for universities to build a relationship with the students. The best students are already involved in such programs. We can expect international universities to be close behind by enrolling students still in high school in order to gain familiarity with these off-shore institutions.

2) “And the small shall act big…One way small companies flourish in the flat world is by learning to act really big. And the key to being small and acting big is being quick to take advantage of all the new tools for collaboration to reach farther, faster, wider, and deeper.” While rural community colleges, typically small and limited in their course offerings, need to especially learn this lesson; the larger institutions also need the same lesson slightly modified. Collaboration with universities or other larger community colleges could allow the smaller institutions to offer a wider variety of course majors including foreign languages for which the U.S. has a shortage of instructors. Another example could entail a group of rural community colleges agreeing to offer unique course offerings and thru collaboration provide such programs on all the campuses in the group without requiring the students to leave their communities. Collaborations between community colleges and universities could include both the offering of 4 year degrees at local community college campuses but also the delivery of remedial education or technical training from community colleges to university students when needed to supplement their university education. Such collaboration may even involve international universities willing to accept our students. The larger U.S. institutions need to similarly collaborate with others when they are not able to offer all the necessary services. Or collaborate with the private sector for additional intern and work experience opportunities especially dealing with global issues and relationships.

3) And the big shall act small…One way that big companies learn to flourish in the flat world is by learning how to act really small by enabling their customers to act really big.” The examples offered by the author describe how large businesses listen to and react locally to the demands of their customers. Basically restating the old adage that one-size does not fit all. In the world of higher education we need to listen to and be observant of changes in the needs of both our students and their parents as well as the needs of the potential employers of our graduates. Our customers (the students, their parents, and potential employers) must be empowered to have a voice in how we deliver services to them such as teaching, tutoring, billing, housing etc. This could also include eliminating the use of text books and adapting a curriculum that incorporates the use of the internet for scholarly research, or the method of paying college fees, the use of on-line academic counseling assistance, one stop on-line registration and fee payment, etc. Students and their parents must be made to feel that they are being treated as individuals and have the services of the college available to them at whatever time they wish to access such services. The large multi-campus university systems in the U.S. need to empower the branch campuses to establish unique methods of serving their students. The University of Phoenix has over 30,000 on-line students who each feel that they are being educated as an individual, such services need to be copied in our public universities and large public colleges as well. Another example would be whereby a student and their parents could track on-line their academic progress and know exactly which courses they must still take and when such classes will be offered. On-line academic tutoring is a further example, whereby a student could register for such services by course offering and then have their tutoring requests followed and have follow-up suggested readings and/or tips offered whenever the student logs back into the tutoring web site. In addition, the best colleges will continually seek input from potential employers to evaluate the knowledge base students are acquiring at the college and whether the learning goals need to be modified in order to adjust to the changing demands of the associated career field. The key is to have the institution act small and the customer (students / parents / employers) act big.

4) "The best companies are the best collaborators." In the flat world, more and more business will be done through collaborations within and between companies, for a very simple reason: The next layers of value creation – whether in technology, marketing, biomedicine, or manufacturing – are becoming so complex that no single firm or department is going to be able to master them alone.” Collaboration between and among colleges and universities is rare due to the inherent competition that naturally occurs between academic institutions. Yet, it is apparent that our institutions can no longer on an individual basis financially afford to provide the academic education on a broad spectrum of programs. Only through collaboration can we meet the growing demands of a wide assortment of education, especially in rural areas of the country. An example would be in the area of remedial education, whereby community colleges can provide such services on a more cost effective basis and usually with better results than most universities. However, through a collaborative program, university students requiring such services could be co-enrolled in community colleges and provided such education in a timely manner thus allowing the student to remain on a steady path to a university graduation. Another example could be whereby a group of small rural community colleges could allocate joint resources for special high cost programs to be offered by only one or two of the campuses with the provision that students from any of the colleges could obtain an education in such subjects through a coordinated distance education system. Thus a student in College A could attend specific science classes via internet at College B and receive the associated academic credit upon successful completion at College A and eventually graduate from College A. As we are now learning, some of the most respected technical universities are no longer in America. Therefore, our community colleges may wish to explore transfer and collaborative agreements with such universities. A student in rural California could obtain an AA degree from their local community college and then transfer to a university from India or China and participate in classes from these schools via the internet or by actually relocating to that country. If we want to be serious about providing a global education to our students we need to consider transfer agreements with such international universities. Such collaboration needs to also occur on the administrative side of the college and university. In locations where there are two or three colleges and universities in close proximity, administrative services such as purchasing, human resources, computer services, facilities planning, etc. could be combined and support thru collaborative programs. An example of this is already occurring is in Colorado where a University and a K-12 system combined administrative services. Another relationship with the K-12 system could be for higher education to provide both tutoring services as well as vocational instructional services to high school students, thus permitting some students to graduate from high school with the ability to immediately obtain employment in licensed trades positions.

5) “In a flat world, the best companies stay healthy by getting regular chest x-rays and then selling the results to their clients.” In the private sector companies need to examine each function and determine its connection to the core mission and profitability of the company. Functions not performing at the best practice level would need to be pruned and replaced with services by others that can provide the best in class. Likewise, higher education institutions need to examine the programs that have developed over the years and determine if they are adding value to the core mission of the institution or sucking off valuable resources. Data needs to be developed that can be used to measure such activities and then ranked with other educational institutions. Again such rankings need to occur on a global basis. In addition, other measurements such as private sector evaluations of graduates, graduation rates, employment rates, etc. should be included in the analysis. The results of these reviews would allow the institution to find and collaborate with the “best in class” organization to provide the needed services. Any corresponding changes in order to improve the institution can be used in advertising the institution to parents and students. In order to make the public aware of such rankings for community colleges, it would make sense to have this data reported on an annual basis during a public Trustee meeting.

6) “The best companies outsource to win, not to shrink. They outsource to innovate faster and more cheaply in order to grow larger, gain market share, and hire more and different specialists – not to save money by firing more people.” The lesson for higher education is simply this, stop providing incentives for people to increase the size of their functions, rather provide incentives for increased results. Typically, managers are rewarded with promotions and higher compensation as the size of their department and responsibilities have grown irrespective of the results they are achieving. Instead we need to reward those who achieve the desired results without adding permanent staffing. This would enable managers to change their operations more quickly as the needs for their services or the delivery of their services changes in the future. On the administrative side of the organization, services needed for new programs such as data warehousing would make good candidates for outsourcing rather than using salary funds to employ a larger permanent work force.

7) “Outsourcing isn’t just for Benedict Arnolds. It’s also for idealists.” The author argues that through outsourcing employers are able to help bring about social changes in other countries. An example could be if a college were in need of data entry services for their Foundation of donor or alumni information on a regular basis, the Foundation could outsource such services to citizens in a third world country and thus besides reducing the Foundation’s costs, the Foundation is providing improved employment to poor residents in the other country and the University is developing a relationship with the country and its citizens which in the future may be a source of new students via web delivered educational services. As a contractor the Foundation could offer college courses to the employees of the company they contract with at a reduced cost and thus help the employees improve their education and perhaps start other associated businesses. Also, the institution could use the relationship to help recruit more students and to identify global sources of funding for research opportunities and funding.

The bottom line is this, Mr. Friedman points out the following short-comings of America’s higher educational system:

1. America will be able to compete IF it starts to churn out knowledge workers who are able to produce idea based goods sold globally and able to fill the knowledge jobs that will expand as our economy goes more global.
2. However, America is falling behind on the basis of sheer numbers. Other countries are now producing more science and engineering students and such production will adversely affect the status of the U.S. higher education system in the future.
3. Also, American students as a whole are not as ambitious as foreign students. The desire for work and the willingness to sacrifice although common in our history is not as common in today’s students.
4. Finally, the gap between scholarly work being performed in other countries versus the U.S. is decreasing. As the author illustrates in his book, scholarly research is increasing in other countries and will soon exceed the amount of work being performed in the U.S. The effect of this transition will be that the U.S. will no longer be sought out for ideas and creativity which until now has been our key to world leadership.

In summary, these are a few of my ideas generated by reading the book but it is clear to me that America, its economy and its way of life faces an international challenge on a variety of fronts, not only from the traditional form of terrorism but more significantly from the economic problems associated with an economy too heavily dependent upon oil resources, an educational system that is being surpassed by many other countries, and a polarization of our own citizens in politics, in social status, and in economic status. Once our country loses its ability to offer those at the bottom of our economic ladder the ability to climb up and achieve a higher standard of living, our national progress will cease and our nation will begin to diminish as a world power.

It is not too late, if we as the leaders of America’s higher education will take the initiative to promptly redesign our institutions in a more competitive model that will produce the citizens needed to collaborate and compete internationally for the benefit of all.

2005 ACCT Presentation - Building Better Boards

The following slides will be presented at the Association of Community College Trustees' Conference in Seatlle, Washington on Thursday, September 8, 2005 by WIlliam McGinnis, Trustee, Butte-Glenn Community College District. The slide titles are in bold letters.

Building a Better Board
Lessons from Outstanding Corporate Boards

WHY?
What makes this so important?

"The World is Flat"
The U.S. is in an economic competition with countries from all over the world that is getting more and more difficult to win. Our competitive advantage to date has been supported and fueled by our higher education system that both developed our young as well as imported educated and attracted international citizens.

But the edge is near!
The U.S. no longer attracts and retains as many international students as in the past.
The U.S. no longer leads the world in the percentage of college going students.
The drop out rate for high school students now exceeds the rate of college going students in many parts of the U.S.
The U.S. no longer leads the world in the number of College going students

How to Turn it Around
Our country’s Higher Education system needs to respond quickly by improving the quality and quantity of graduating students.
The U.S. government in cooperation with higher educations needs to improve the flow of international students into our country, as well as to foster the international education of our students.

Quality Improvement
The Quality Improvement of Higher Education begins at our local colleges.
The "champions" for the quality efforts at our community colleges must be our Boards of Trustees.
Boards of Trustees can best champion such quality improvement by becoming and modeling a high performing Board.

What Makes a High Performing Board?
The real challenge for Trustees isn’t regulatory compliance—it’s high performance. Setting standards of excellence for the College and themselves.
To achieve high performance, Trustees need to systematically examine their purpose, tasks, talents, information, and agenda.

Better Governance
The keys to better governance:
By having a strong working relationship between the Board and the President,
By having healthy social dynamics of Board interaction, and
By having the competence, integrity, and constructive involvement of all the individual Trustees.

Teamwork
A high-performing Trustee Board, like a high-performing corporate team:
is competent, coordinated, collegial, and focused on unambiguous goals.

One Key to Board Success
Regular self-assessment is a critical key to success in building a high performing Board of Trustees.

7 Areas of Success
The Right Mind Set
The Right Role
The Right Work
The Right People
The Right Agenda
The Right Information
The Right Culture

1. The Right Mind-Set
Board building is an on-going activity, a process of continuous improvement, which means Boards must keep coming back to the same questions about purpose, resources, and effectiveness.
Retain your focus in spite of all the noise from other college issues.

Self-Assessment Process
Self-assessment should not be a cursory glance in the mirror or performed in a vacuum.
Rather it needs to be a periodic & exhaustive culling of quantitative and qualitative data through: Surveys, confidential interviews, and facilitated group discussions.
(Community based, stakeholders, employers, universities, etc.)

2. The Right Role
Like most quests for change, board building begins with a vision.
Specifically, boards must engage in discussions and decide upon the College’s direction for the future, specifically the vision and strategic plan.

3. The Right Work
Establishing and sticking to an overarching level of engagement helps Trustees set expectations and ground rules for their roles relative to the President’s role.
(Again, focus on "what" not the "how", and don’t allow your focus to be diverted.)

4. The Right People
A team is only as good as its members, and high-quality Trustees are sometimes scarce.
While we cannot always choose Trustees, we can build their resources.
Trustees must select and develop key college leaders and establish a climate for higher performance.

Board Self-Help
Boards must recognize which Trustees need help, and then provide the help thru mentoring, education, establishing ground rules, and enforcing state and local laws, policies, regulations and ground rules.

Great People or Great Board?
"The most effective way to forge a winning team is to call on the player’s needs to connect with something larger than themselves."
Phil Jackson, Former Coach of the Chicago Bulls.

The War for Talented Key Staff
"In the new economy, competition is global, capital is abundant, ideas are developed quickly and cheaply, and people are willing to change jobs often. In that kind of an economy…. All that matters is talent….superior talent will be tomorrow’s prime source of competitive advantage."
The same is true for institutions of higher education.

Competitive Advantage
A competitive advantage comes not from strategy but from execution….and execution depends on people!
A competitive advantage does come from properly executing the strategy and executing it quickly.

Ten Minute MBA Program
Why do people leave jobs?
The evidence is remarkably clear. People typically leave their job because of dissatisfaction with their boss, the lack of challenge, or the lack of opportunity for advancement……not simply for the money.
"It is almost impossible to recruit people away from their current job if they are happy." (Bill Unger)

Management Hot Air ?
"All organizations now routinely say, ‘People are our greatest asset.’ Yet few practice what they preach, let alone truly believe it….organizations have to market membership as much as they market products and services – and perhaps more."
Peter Drucker (1992)

Employee Centered Results
A study of 105,000 employees across 2,500 business units by the Gallup Poll found that happier employees were associated with higher levels of profit, productivity, retention, and customer satisfaction.

A Bain study showed that brokerage firms that increased broker retention by 10% increased broker value by 155%. Studies in trucking, retail, and hospitality have shown similar results.

An Alternative Perspective
Only 10% of the people are in the top 10%.

Great companies not only find and hire talent, they build it, and most importantly, they unleash the energy and the talent of all their people.

SAS Institute
Uses no stock options, phantom stock, or other incentives other than a small 10% annual bonus
Does not pay its account executives on commission and doesn’t share sales numbers within the sales force
Does not use any performance appraisals
Does have subsidized on-site day care and free health care, subsidized meals, free massages, and private offices for all staff
Uses no outside contractors, including workers in the gym
People are expected to have four careers during their work lives
Managers are evaluated principally on their ability to attract and retain talent
Has 3% turnover and requires fewer "checkers" and produces software with fewer "bugs"
Has no product development strategy

SAS Values
The desire to create a corporation where it is was as much fun for the workers as for top management.
All people at SAS are treated fairly and equally.
All people at SAS should be treated with dignity and respect.
The workplace should be fun..
A belief in and reliance on intrinsic, internal motivation of people.
A belief in creating a work environment in which both the physical aspects and services offered to employees relieve the stress of their day to day concerns.

Value-Based Practices
Values and Culture come first
Hire for fit
Investment and opportunities for all people in the company
Widespread information sharing of operational and financial data
Reliance on teams and involvement
Emphasis on equity and non-monetary rewards
Leaders, not managers

Psychological Ownership
Originates from:
Being Involved
Being Listened to
Having an opportunity to participate
The advantages of psychological ownership
outweigh
the advantages of monetary ownership.

Conclusion #1
SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE results from an organization’s ability to do something that adds value from the customer’s perspective and that is difficult for competitors to imitate.
Culture is about execution - - building those capabilities that provide this advantage and ensuring that there is organizational alignment for these.
The good news is that there is sustainable advantage from people; the bad news is that it is hard to do.

Conclusion #2
You can probably not earn above normal economic returns by doing what everybody else does. Earning exceptional returns requires being willing and able to do things differently, to develop a different business model, and not get caught up in following conventional wisdom.

A Final Question
Imagine doing the following experiment. Ask a sample of your employees and/or administrators the following questions:
Why do you work here? What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Tabulate these results. Then consider whether you are tapping the full potential of all your employees. Are you winning the "War for talent? "

Lessons for Trustees
Do we have a clear, well-articulated set of values that serve as the foundation for our management practices?
Do our management practices support and enhance our values?
Do we have alignment and consistency between our people-centered practices and our core values?
Do our senior administrators ensure that our values are maintained and constantly made real to everyone in the organization?

What steps should we take?
Create the VALUES & CULTURE first.
The value is the belief about what is worthwhile or really important. (i.e. Student Success is a student achieving their educational goal in the time desired by the student).
The culture is the organization’s day to day social control system in which shared expectations guide people’s behavior.

Making the Values Real
Senior administration must believe in the Board’s values statement and act consistently.
There must be absolute consistency between the organization’s values and practices that express these values.

Some Additional Steps
Hire for Fit – not only job skills but for shared values and culture of the organization.
Invest in People – Train, train, train. Spend time once hired to describe values and culture. Board fund such programs.
Widespread Information Sharing – all college data available to all Board members and college employees - 24/7
Team-Based Systems – College wide – not just in specific areas.
Rewards & recognition – support accomplishments by teams through on-going recognition by senior management.
Lead – don’t manage – focus on the what and not the how.

5. The Right Agenda
Agenda management is a mundane-sounding subject if ever there was one. Agendas, however, dictate what the board discusses and at what length. To control the agenda is to control the work of the board.

Impact of the Agenda
With the call to accountability and higher performance, Trustee Boards can no longer doze behind the wheel while management steers.
Alternatively, after each board meeting, the Board President and the College President can collectively set the agenda for the next meeting.

Corporate Example
The board at Target, has transformed agenda management into something of an art. At the start of each year, the board sets three top priorities—for example, strategic direction, capital allocation, and succession planning. It then places each topic at the top of the agenda for at least one upcoming meeting. Target’s board also devotes one meeting a year to setting the strategic direction for each major operating division, an acknowledgement of the company’s growing complexity.

College Example
Other Possible Major Board Discussion Topics:
College Budget and fees structure
Student success
Economic Development
Performance Measurement Reports:
Key Performance Indicators
Performance Goals

Beyond the meeting
Trustees should find ways to stay engaged with the College’s issues outside of regular meetings as well. This will facilitate setting the right agenda plus an understanding of the issues.

6. The Right Information
"There are two equally effective ways of keeping a board in the dark.
One is to provide them with too little information.
The other, ironically, is to provide too much."
The Board must communicate its information needs to the staff. And staff must adjust the information load by trustee.

How Information Reaches the Board
Boards often subsist on just two sources of information.
The first is retrospective data on the College’s performance and operations—in other words, trailing indicators.
The second is presentations by management—particularly by the President, whose articulation of the future and interpretation of financials significantly shape boards’ views.
President’s Responsibility
It is the President’s responsibility to ensure that the board receives the right information at the right time and in the right format to perform their duties. The best boards design processes to deliver formal information that combines both leading and lagging performance indicators associated with their goals.

7. The Right Culture
Against a backdrop of governance progress, many boards appear afraid to engage in open and contested discussions of issues.
No one argues passionately about anything.
Robert’s Rules of Order prevail as a requirement for lock step.

Open Discussions
Engaged cultures are characterized by candor and a willingness to challenge, and they reflect the social and work dynamics of a high-performance team.

Do You Have an Engaged Culture?
Culture, by contrast, develops over time and tends to reward those who perpetuate it, making it difficult to change.
Trust and respect between and among the Trustees is critical to the successful development of an engaged culture by the Board. Likewise the trust and respect between the Board and the CEO are also critical.

Create a climate of Trust & Candor
The CEO should provide the Board with the right information in the right amount in a timely manner. (in order to allow reading & digesting)
The Board should periodically Rotate Board members through various small groups & committees to broaden interaction.
The Board should work to prevent and/or eliminate polarizing factors

Approve Strategy Decisions
Annually review the College’s vision and long-term strategic plan.
Approve Major Capital Expenditures / Plans
Approve Acquisitions / Divestitures
Assure Short-term decisions comply with the College’s Approved Strategic Plan.

Trustees Role in Assessing Campus Performance
The new accountability makes the Trustees accountable for results (outcomes).
Trustees can best fulfill this responsibility for results; NOT by dictating the details of assessing performance. Rather, by questioning performance results, and especially their use.
Ask College Administrators Critical Questions and insist on Clear Answers.

Hidden Value Keys to Success
To the extent that any organization can truly unleash the hidden value in its people, it will increase its chance of success. This is particularly true in a world in which intellectual capital and knowledge are increasing such as in our Colleges.

Knowing is not doing.
Knowing what needs to be done is not sufficient.
Talking about what to do is not sufficient.
Only by doing what is needed - executing the strategy will move your organization ahead will result in high performance. Therefore, the Board of Trustees must arrive at a strategic plan for the college in a timely manner and must empower the staff to innovatively implement the strategy in a prompt, efficient and effective manner and then measure such performance!

Questions??
Presenter:
William McGinnis
Trustee – Butte-Glenn CCD
mcginnisbi@butte.edu
Copy of Slides:
http://cctrustees.blogspot.com/

Califonria Community College Trustees' Annual Conference Presentation
April 30, 2005

Fulfilling Your Fiduciary Monitoring Role
by: Michael E. Hill
Vice Chancellor,
Administrative Services
San Jose-Evergreen CCD
&
William McGinnis
Trustee
Butte-Glenn CCD

Outline of Slides:
1) Definition of "Fiduciary"

One who holds something in trust for another, a person who stands in a special relation of trust, confidence or responsibility in his/her obligations to others. Legal Requirements of fiduciary responsibility (see Ed Code Section 70902) and standards (Title 5).

2) Financial Monitoring

Areas of Emphasis:
Annual Budget
Budget Administration Policies
Quarterly Financial Reports
Annual Audit
Multi-Year Measurements
Hiring of Well Qualified Staff

3) Annual Budget
Implements organizational direction
Must be balanced & establishes budgetary limits
Process & details must be transparent to the public
Must comply with state law and system regulations (i.e. 5% reserve limit)
(Note: Never look at just one year’s budget in isolation – each budget should be viewed as to its potential impact upon future budgets)

4) Budget Administration Policies

What are the policies: (Example: A BOT Policy on the % of annual expenditures to be in the College’s General Fund Reserve Account)
Why have such policies: (To guide the administration on the development and implementation of the budget).
When do you test: (Periodically, with the proposed budget, with quarterly financial reports, and with the annual financial audit).

5) Quarterly Financial Reports

Periodic reports of management about adherence to the Annual budget and any changes that may impact future expenditures and revenues.
Covers financial quarters – Generally available in October, January, April, and August (may vary by district).
Must be provided to system office, trustees, and public.
Depending on your District’s structure & practice may have Audit Committee review & comment thereon.

6) Why Audit

Required by Law but beyond that:
To assure Accuracy of Financial Reports
To assure Compliance with laws, regulations and trustee policies.
To assure trustee Compliance with federal and state requirements.
Can be used to test college systems to assure security of funds and important resources (data security).
NOTE: Audits are based upon sampling and review of internal control procedures. No audit will provide a complete validation of the above mentioned items.

7) Trustees’ Audit Committee Role(working with the College’s Administration & Auditors)

To select an independent auditor.
To review and understand the District’s financial statements (possibly including the District’s quarterly financial reports).
To assure to the full Trustee Board that the financial statements reflect the District’s financial condition.

8) Trustees’ Audit Committee Role (con’t)

To determine the adequacy of internal controls, including those established for financial information systems.
To assure to the full Trustee Board that any significant noncompliance with regulatory matters have been brought to their attention and that a plan for correction is in place.
May provide oversight for review of Conflict of Interest information.

9) Audit Committee’s Duties (working with the College’s Administration & Auditors)

Select the independent auditor.
Meet with the auditor before starting audit.
Meet again with the auditors to review the completed audit and any reports (adequacy of internal controls, management letter of recommendations, and other findings).
Schedule additional meetings with the administration if the auditor has issued a letter identifying any internal control weaknesses.
Present the audit report to the full Board.
Review follow up responses by administration to management letter recommendations.
May monitor the institution’s conflict of interest policy.

10) Sample Questions to ask Auditors

Where is our District financially vulnerable?
How can the Trustees and senior management of the District establish an improved financial environment in the District?
Are there any areas of the audit that District management and the auditor disagree upon?

11) Sample Trustee Audit Concerns

Does the audit find that the District’s financial statements comply with the required governmental Accounting Standards?
Has the auditing firm issued any Findings within the financial audit?
Are there any Notes on Internal Controls concerning the District’s management of the budget and accounting systems?
Is the audit of the District’s financial statements qualified or unqualified?

12) Sample Trustee Audit Concerns

If the District has approved capital improvement project bonds, a separate audit of such Bond Funds should be provided. Of special interest is to assure that these funds match the financial plan that the District provided to the voters at the time of the Bond Election.

13) Questions all Trustees Should Ask

Has your District completed an annual financial audit of the past year’s financial information? If not – why not?
Does the audit find that the District’s financial statements comply with the required governmental Accounting Standards Board Statements No. 34? If not – why not?
Within the Statement of Cash Flows section of the audit is there a net decrease in cash? If yes, what is the District’s plan for overcoming this problem in the next fiscal year?
Has the auditing firm issued any Findings within the financial audit? If so, what will the District’s response be to the findings?

14) Sample of Possible Financial Benchmarks

The % of annual payments for long term debt divided by annual revenues budget should be less than 5%.
The % of the value of deferred maintenance divided by value of entire plant should be less than 10%.
A 5 to 10 year trend line for the total revenues budget.

15) Multi-Year Trends

Measurements:
Deficit Spending
Impacts upon the General Fund Balances
Costs of Retirees Health Insurance Coverage
Long Term Costs of Labor Agreements
Long Term Costs of Debt Service
Enrollment & productivity trends
Condition of Facilities

Example: The % of $ value of total out years for labor agreements divided by current value of labor agreements as compared to the projected COLA % changes.

16) Hire a Well Qualified Staff

The management of the financial program and records of a college is complicated and a college’s financial program is only as good as the people who manage and implement the program. By looking for the lowest cost alternative to manage your program may cost you in the long run.
Take the necessary time needed to hire well qualified staff
Hire for Talent
Respect the staff

17) Key Points

Annual Budget – Establishes college’s direction and expenditure limitations in compliance with Trustee’s vision and policies, state law and system regulations.
Quarterly financial reports – report changes to adopted budget and future financial impacts.
Annual Financial Audit – Evaluates management’s financial information provided during the year and to test compliance with policies, laws, and regulations.
Multi-year Trending – Tracks progress towards future vision of college.
Hire a Well Qualified Staff.

18) Summary

While the financial responsibilities of the Board are not your most important – they are critical to the success of your college and more importantly to your students!
Additionally, most often it is the financial difficulty of a District that has the greatest impact upon the tenure of trustees and senior administrators.

19) Questions

Direct to: mcginnisbi@butte.edu

The following Presentation Notes were also made available at the presentation:

Annual Financial Audit Reports.

The fiduciary responsibilities of Trustees cannot be completely satisfied without an annual audit of the financial reports for the District. While Trustees must rely primarily upon the financial reports prepared by District staff including the annual budget and quarterly financial reports, Trustees cannot be sure of the accuracy of such reports without a periodic evaluation to test whether such financial reports are accurate. An annual financial audit by an independent auditor can provide the Trustees with an evaluation of the financial reports provided by the district staff (i.e. are they correct or not in the opinion of the auditor). The use of financial benchmarks based upon the budget or quarterly reports are only as accurate as the financial reports they are based upon. Therefore, the annual audit will provide to the Trustees the assurance whether the financial statements (and thus the benchmarks) are accurate or not.

A Trustee Board can best carry out this responsibility by appointing an Audit Committee (a sub-committee of Trustee Board members). Some typical responsibilities of an Audit committee are as follows:
1. To select an independent auditor.
2. To review and understand the District’s financial statements (possibly including the District’s quarterly financial reports).
3. To assure to the full Trustee Board that the financial statements reflect the District’s financial condition.
4. To determine the adequacy of internal controls, including those established for financial information systems (some committees may enlarge the scope and review security for District computer systems).
5. To assure to the full Trustee Board that any significant noncompliance with regulatory matters have been brought to their attention and that a plan for correction is in place.
6. To ensure adherence by the Trustees to the District’s conflict of interest policy.

The Trustee’s Audit Committee will need to take the following actions in order to carry out their responsibilities to the District:
1. The committee shall select an independent auditor to perform the annual financial audit of the District. (Please note that either the firm should be changed periodically or the accountants performing the actual audit).
2. The committee should meet with the auditor before commencing the annual audits of the District’s financial statements. (This permits the committee to review the general scope of the audit and to select any topics for special attention).
3. The committee should meet again with the auditors at the completion of the audit in order to review the report and the financial statements and the report on the adequacy of internal controls and other findings. (The review of the financial statements should include an accompanying narrative known as the management discussion and analysis).
4. The committee should also review the auditor’s management letter at the follow up meeting. (If the auditor has issues a letter that identifies any internal control weaknesses the audit committee should schedule additional meetings with the administration on progress towards correcting such problems). Any additional audit reports should also be reviewed during this meeting.
5. Once the post-audit review is completed, the audit committee should prepare to present the audit report to the full Trustee Board at its next scheduled open meeting.
6. The committee should also monitor the institution’s conflict of interest policy including how it pertains to Trustee Board members. (Specific actions could include reviewing the annual conflict of interest statements required of all Trustees to assure that the reports are completed and no conflicts are occurring or reviewing periodic travel claims submitted by senior management and Trustees to assure compliance with District policies.)

Questions that Trustees on the Audit Committee may want to ask the administration and/or the auditor include:
1. Do our District’s independent auditors have an expertise in college financial issues?
2. Does our District periodically change auditing firms to enlist a fresh set of eyes?
3. Does the District staff help the audit committee take a broad view of its responsibilities?
4. Is the District’s annual financial report understandable? Does it present an accurate financial picture of our District?
5. Does our District have an adequate risk management program in place?
6. Where is our District financially vulnerable?
7. Are there areas of our District’s financial statements that could be more explicit?
8. Are there any areas of the audit that District management and the auditor disagree upon?
9. How can the Trustees and senior management of the District establish an improved financial environment in the District?
10. Is there a pattern of lawsuits brought against our District?
11. Does our District have a succession plan for senior management?
12. What is our District’s contingency plan for a sustained computer failure?
13. Does our District have adequate financial controls in place?
14. Are there other threats our District should be concerned with?

Other questions Trustees can ask to assure that the audit requirements for their District are being properly implemented:
1. Each District is required to complete an annual audit of the District’s financial statements. Has your District completed the required annual audit of the past year’s financial information within 6 months of the close of the fiscal year? If not – why not?
2. Does the audit find that the District’s financial statements comply with the required governmental Accounting Standards? If not – why not?
3. Within the Financial and Attendance Highlights section of the audit, are there any comments or issues? If so, what is the District’s plan for resolution of these issues?
4. Within the Statement of Cash Flows section of the audit was there any unplanned net decreases or significant increases in cash? If yes, what is the District’s plan for correcting this problem in the next fiscal year?
5. Has the auditing firm issued any Findings within the financial audit? If so, what will the District’s response be to the findings?
6. Does the District’s Audit Findings Response require future action(s) on the part of the District? If yes, then coordinate between the Board and the District’s Superintendent / President (or Chancellor) to develop a schedule when the administration will report to the Board about the completion of the responses to the audit findings.
7. Does the audit include in the Statement of Revenues Expenses and Changes in Net Assets any unplanned increase or a decrease in the District’s net assets? If this is a declining number, the BOT needs to determine the cause of the reduction and assure the administration is taking steps to improve the situation.
8. Does the audit find any unplanned decrease or an increase in the Statement of Cash Flows for the District? If there is a decrease in the cash and cash equivalents within this statement, the BOT needs to determine the cause and whether the situation can be corrected.
9. Within the Notes to the Financial Statement section of the Audit there is a portion concerning Long Term Debt obligations. The Trustees need to assure that the District can reasonably continue to meet its’ long term debt obligations in the future.
10. Does the Audit contain any obligations for Post Retirement Benefits for the District’s employees? If so, is the District making progress towards conforming to the plan?
11. Are there any Notes on Internal Controls concerning the District’s management of the budget and accounting systems? If so, is there a District response? If a District response is provided and it identifies future actions of the District, you should coordinate with the Superintendent / President for the BOT to receive periodic reports of the District’s response to such findings. Also, does the audit include any Notes on Internal Controls? If so, do any of the notes indicate any problems that the BOT need to address with the Superintendent / President? Can all the notes be addressed and resolved in the coming year? If not – why not?
12. Is the audit of the District’s financial statements qualified or unqualified? If the audit is qualified, the BOT need to determine the reason for such qualification and assure that the District can obtain an unqualified audit in the following year.
13. If the District has approved special bonds for capital improvement projects, a separate audit of such Bond Funds should be provided. Of special interest is to assure that these funds match the financial plan that the District provided to the voters at the time of the Bond Election. If there are significant differences between the actual expenditures and the original plan, the BOT need to address such potential problems as soon as possible.
14. If fraud was discovered as a result of the audit, what actions is the District taking to remedy the situation?

Additional information on audits can be obtained from the Community College League of California training guide for Trustees. The Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges also publishes information on the audit committee and the audit process. An excellent work book that audit committee members may wish to consult is the Audit Committee Toolkit published by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. This work book includes steps to follow in the audit process and typical questions committee members should ask of auditors and senior management. Although the work book is directed to corporate boards, the process and most of the questions are relevant to community colleges as well.