Juliana Laing, one of our local governance experts, brings the Board Chair and ED Partnership to life in this month’s podcast. She emphasizes the importance of treating this partnership like many other key relationships in life, beginning with a strong foundation of trust with a willingness to tackle tough issues in a timely and open way. Juliana shares, in closing, that the best Board Chair – ED partnerships are like those of strong dance partners who know who is leading, when – and how not to step on each other’s toes!

From our Vantage Point is brought to you by Humanity Financial Management, a Chartered Accounting firm dedicated to helping Canadian not-for-profit, charitable and social enterprises build capacity for strong internal financial management.

From Our Vantage Point podcast is generously sponsored by our partners at Humanity Financial.

With the drive towards increasing transparency in the governance realm, the use of in-camera board meetings is a hot topic. Shawn Mitchell, expert in not-for-profit governance and leadership, joins me to share his thoughts on how to employ in-camera board meetings to strengthen organizational governance. Shawn is the Executive Director for the Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association, and a three-term member of the board of MEC, where he also chairs the governance committee.

From our Vantage Point is brought to you by Humanity Financial Management, a Chartered Accounting firm dedicated to helping Canadian not-for-profit, charitable and social enterprises build capacity for strong internal financial management.

From Our Vantage Point podcast is generously sponsored by our partners at Humanity Financial.

In this month’s podcast we consider the topic: Making the “To-Get-Done” List: Operational Plans That Work with Catarina Moreno, Program Director at QMUNITY - B.C.'s Queer Resource Centre. After a few years of observing a disconnect between strategic plans and work plans, Catarina led QMUNITY's operational planning process that translated the organization's strategic plan into one succinct operational plan that covers 12 multi-disciplinary staff. In this podcast she highlights the importance of moving away from the “tyranny of activities”, team engagement in the process, and openness to an iterative (and sometimes lengthy) journey.

From our Vantage Point is brought to you by Humanity Financial Management, a Chartered Accounting firm dedicated to helping Canadian not-for-profit, charitable and social enterprises build capacity for strong internal financial management.

From Our Vantage Point podcast is generously sponsored by our partners at Humanity Financial.

We are often asked by boards that we work with: do we really need Director and Officers (D&O) Liability Insurance? We’ve finally had a chance to go to the experts on this one for this one: Director and Officers Liability Insurance: A Necessary Cost? Kawkab Jamal, agency owner of The Co-operators office at 5564 Cambie Street, Vancouver, leads us through the key benefits of D&O insurance, the issues to consider when exploring or revisiting your coverage, and the risks of not having this type of insurance (because neither ignorance nor resignation is a defence!).

From our Vantage Point is brought to you by Humanity Financial Management, a Chartered Accounting firm dedicated to helping Canadian not-for-profit, charitable and social enterprises build capacity for strong internal financial management.

From Our Vantage Point podcast is generously sponsored by our partners at Humanity Financial.

For our virtual interview, Kelly Allder, Vice President for Human Resource Programs at Ceridian, joins me to share her HR expertise on the topic: Show Me the Money! Getting Clarity on Compensation. Kelly is familiar with the not-for-profit context through her role as Executive Director of Ceridian Cares, Ceridian’s philanthropic foundation (www.ceridiancares.ca). Kelly emphasises the importance of starting with your organization’s values in articulating a clear compensation philosophy that then serves as the key foundation for making compensation decisions across the organization.

From our Vantage Point is brought to you by Humanity Financial Management, a Chartered Accounting firm dedicated to helping Canadian not-for-profit, charitable and social enterprises build capacity for strong internal financial management.

From Our Vantage Point podcast is generously sponsored by our partners at Humanity Financial.

As we launch our Year of Abundance, I invited Stacy Ashton, Executive Director of Community Volunteer Connections, to explore the topic: Abundance in the Not-for-Profit Sector: A Powerful Paradox. Together we explore what “abundance” looks like in the context of the not-for-profit sector – and what it makes possible to nurture a culture of abundance over scarcity. Stacy shares how she brings abundance thinking to her diverse community roles, through both a belief that the resources required to effect positive change will come together and an understanding that it’s not all up to her!

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From our Vantage Point is brought to you by Humanity Financial Management, a Chartered Accounting firm dedicated to helping Canadian not-for-profit, charitable and social enterprises build capacity for strong internal financial management.

From Our Vantage Point podcast is generously sponsored by our partners at Humanity Financial.

This month’s podcast guest, Kathi Irvine, gets out her dance shoes to walk us through the steps of Mastering the Governance Foxtrot: Effective Board/ED Relations.

Kathi is a long-time knowledge philanthropist here at Vantage Point and a skilled consultant and facilitator. She is Co-Founding Partner of Watershed Organizational Development Group Inc., where she supports for-profit and not-for-profit organizations with strategic planning, leadership development, knowledge transfer and succession planning. Kathi has brought her skill in not-for-profit governance to her own board role with Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver, as well as to many of her own client organizations.

From our Vantage Point is brought to you by Humanity Financial Management, a Chartered Accounting firm dedicated to helping Canadian not-for-profit, charitable and social enterprises build capacity for strong internal financial management.

From Our Vantage Point podcast is generously sponsored by our partners at Humanity Financial.

Gordon Holley, CEO of Humanity Financial Management, joins me this month to contribute to Imagine Canada’s national efforts to put the “overhead myth” to rest. Gordon highlights recent studies that indicate strong investment in overhead will drive greater positive change in our communities. These studies directly contradict the perspective that many funders and donors continue to have that organizations should seek to spend less on overhead and more on programs and projects. Gordon offers key tips on what we can each do as leaders in the sector to end the overhead myth, once and for all!

From our Vantage Point is brought to you by Humanity Financial Management, a Chartered Accounting firm dedicated to helping Canadian not-for-profit, charitable and social enterprises build capacity for strong internal financial management.

From Our Vantage Point podcast is generously sponsored by our partners at Humanity Financial.

Carol Neuman, Vantage Point’s Director of Learning, shares her insights on the topic: Board Committee Structure: Going Lean. From Carol’s vantage point, “going lean” on committees means paring back to the key essentials and taking intentional care to regularly review terms of reference, while reserving task forces for project specific work, as needed.

From our Vantage Point is brought to you by Humanity Financial Management, a Chartered Accounting firm dedicated to helping Canadian not-for-profit, charitable and social enterprises build capacity for strong internal financial management.

From Our Vantage Point podcast is generously sponsored by our partners at Humanity Financial.

This month we finally get to the topic that inspired the idea for this podcast: What's the deal with Robert's Rules of Order? I’ve personally worked with not-for-profit boards for over a decade and I’ve never opened the 700+ page Robert’s Rules of Order. I’ve dismissed the whole idea as being overly complex and simply too overwhelming for the typical board member to digest and, ultimately, a deterrent to effective board member engagement. My guest, Eli Mina, a Vancouver based consultant on board effectiveness and a registered Parliamentarian, was definitely up to the task of challenging my thinking.

From our Vantage Point is brought to you by Humanity Financial Management, a Chartered Accounting firm dedicated to helping Canadian not-for-profit, charitable and social enterprises build capacity for strong internal financial management.

From Our Vantage Point podcast is generously sponsored by our partners at Humanity Financial.