[CSL board] QUICK FYI assessment report results

[Dan MacNeil]

We (Melissa, Karen, Mimi, Charlotte & I) just finished an organizational 
self assessment with Jericho Road. (Jodi & Becky). An assessment is a 
good idea on it's own, but it is an especially good idea when a 
potential major funder (Phil Hall / Parker Foundation) suggests it.

Email with a copy of the report. (reading it is a 15 minute project) 
will follow.

Jodi from Jericho Road will be at our May 8th board meeting to discuss 
the assessment and possible next steps.

I was quite surprised that we did well on:

LEADERSHIP:
   capacity of organizational leaders
   to inspire prioritize, make decisions,
   provide directions and innovate.

On a 1-4 scale with "4" being "people write books about how great you 
are", we give ourselves a "3". Vision was particularly strong (we have one)

We were slightly better than "adequate" on:

ADAPTIVE CAPACITY:
   capacity of a nonprofit to monitor
   assess and respond to internal and
   external changes.

Both Jodi & Becky observed that Leadership and adaptive capacity  were 
the two hardest areas to get right and the hardest areas to improve.

QUICK PROBLEMS

In terms of problems with Management and Operational capacity, The quick 
ones to fix are:

	Job Descriptions (self explanatory)

	Lack of shared understanding on insurance, liability and risk.

The state of our insurance/liability/risk is at:

	http://thecsl.org/go/board/#liability

...which everyone (should have) read before coming on the board.

To clarify. We don't have liability insurance, director's insurance or 
workman's compensation insurance. If a volunteer, staff person or 
contractor electrocutes themselves, their widow(er) could sue the 
organization and each individual board member.  While such a suit would 
probably not succeed legal fees would painful.

On the other hand the chances of something like this happening are 
pretty low.

If the board feels the current risks are too high, we should discuss 
this and/or get insurance.

BIGGER PROBLEMS

This is quick and subjective. Read the report for things I'm skipping. 
My top 4 issues are:

	1) Everything falls apart w/o me
	2) We don't do evaluation or Performance Measurement
	3) Funding Model (we have little money)
	4) Communications Strategy

There are other issues but they fall out of the ones above. For example 
we do poor "HR planning" because we have no money. We "hire" based on 
available volunteer/VISTA talent instead of to fill our needs.

POSSIBLE NEXT STEPS (with Jericho Road)

Again, quick subjective, again take 15 minutes to see what important 
stuff, I've omitted. Here is some stuff Jericho could help with:

	1) Business Plan
	2) Board Assessment
	3) Communications Planing
	4) Strategic Plan(ing)

Generally I favor doing quick easy things first and doing things one at 
a time.

A business plan is (according to wikipedia):

    A formal statement of a set of
    business goals, the reasons why
    they are believed attainable,
    and the plan for reaching those
    goals.

Having one will:

  * Make funders with strong potential
   (Parker) happier

   * Help with problems 1-3 above.

Additionally:

  * We can get this done relatively quickly

  * This is something Jericho is experienced with.

  * Expanding mvhub & mvhub funding is very plannable

A board assessment will help with probably #1 and given we all like to 
know more about ourselves is probably pretty doable. Problem #1

Communications planning, I have a vague ill-defined uneasy feeling about.

Strategic planning is time consuming and something we've failed at 
repeatedly.