1. CARVER’S POLICY GOVERNANCE MODEL
Presented at the
RCOC Board of Directors Meeting
by Christian F. Dubia
January 5, 2012

2. Goals By the end of the training you will:
Understand policy governance
Understand the purpose of a Board of Directors
Know who the Board of Directors represent
Know who speaks for the Board of Directors
Understand how the Board of Directors gets its job done

3. What Is Policy Governance?
A set of ideas that make up a system that
Defines the ENDS or goals to be met
ENDS = Goals
Empowers management to meet those ENDS with some rules about the MEANS or ways used to meet them
MEANS = Ways
Monitors performance of management

4. How Do You Make Sure That Policy Governance Is Successful?
Decide on the ENDS to be met
Tell everyone the ENDS to be met
Make it the Executive Director’s (ED) job to meet the ENDS
Monitor the ED’s performance to make sure the job is getting done and the ENDS are being met

5. Why did RCOC pick the Carver Policy Governance Model?
To maximize the likelihood of success of RCOC in meeting the goals described in the Lanterman Act.

6. What Is the Purpose of a Board of Directors?
To represent and speak for the interests of the owners and to be accountable to such owners for whom the organization works.

7. Who are the Owners Represented by the RCOC Board of Directors?
The “owners” are the entire community of Orange County and the citizens of the State of California
The board must understand and speak for the many views held by the entire community – not just one particular group

8. The Board’s Purpose Is Not To:
Be a part of staff
Say okay to anything that management wants
Closely watch over everything that management does
Get special things or be treated differently because you are a board member

9. The “Owners” the Board of Directors Represents Are Not:
Individual Staff
Individual Management
Individual Consumers
Individual Board Members
Individual Vendors

10. Who Speaks for the Board of Directors?
The “One Voice” principle
The board as a group, and only as a group, speaks for the board
The board can only speak when it passes an official motion at a board meeting
Board decisions can only be changed by the board, not by individual board members
Bill asks that you really focus on this because it is easy to have problems with this. He wants new Board members to understand that it’s an easy trap and that they must be vigilant. He thinks specific examples would be helpful such as that Board members don’t do case management, they should speak as community members rather than identify themselves as Board members when communicating personal positions, etc. Since this was a recent issue with a Board member who’s term just ended, Bill really wants folks to be clear on this.

11. More About Who Can Speak For The Board
Individual board members cannot speak for the board
Individual board members have no authority
Once the board has made a decision, all board members must respect it – even if they did not agree with the decision because
the board speaks with ONE VOICE

12. How Does the Board Get Its Job Done?
The board has total power and responsibility for getting its job done
The board “works” for the owners – the citizens of Orange County and the State of California
The board knows it’s getting its job done when the agency is successfully meeting its goals
BUT, the board has to depend on management to do the work of the organization

13. More About How the Board Gets Its Job Done
The Carver Model talks about “systematic delegation”
That means the board gives the ED the power and responsibility to get the job done for them
To help the ED be successful the board has to:
Be clear about what it expects
Directly tell the ED what is expected
Check to see whether its getting what it expects to get

14. Even More About How the Board Gets Its Job Done
The board sets policies that define the ENDS
The MEANS used to meet the ENDS is not important to the board as long as some general rules are followed
Those general rules are written in the “Executive Limitations” policies.
Under the Carver Model the board’s job is not producing ends, but defining them

15. Review and Summary
RCOC’s Board of Directors adopted the Carver Policy Governance Model 10+ years ago to maximize the likelihood of success of RCOC in meeting the goals described in the Lanterman Act.
If the ENDS are met by the ED, the board’s responsibilities to the owners will have been met

16. More Review
RCOC’s policies clearly define the ENDS to be met by the ED and state some general rules about they way the ED can do his job
The board gives the ED the power and responsibility to meet the ENDS defined by the board.
The board evaluates the ED’s performance to see how successful he is in meeting the ENDS
RCOC’s success or failure falls on the shoulders of the ED which is exactly where it should be.

17. Ending The RCOC Board of Directors does its job by defining success
and making sure the ED is working toward meeting goals.
The board is successful when it is doing what it should for the owners –
the people who live in Orange County
and in the State of California