New Board Member Orientation Manual
BEST BOARD PRACTICES CHECKLIST:
NEW BOARD MEMBER ORIENTATION MANUAL
A Board Orientation Manual reinforces information provided during orientation seminars. Consider these items in custom-designing an orientation manual for your board.
About the Board
1. Position description for a board member
2. Corporate bylaws (and for hospital boards, medical staff bylaws)
3. Roster of board members, including pictures and a brief biography
4. Board organization chart showing parent board, subsidiary boards and board committees
5. Committee charters detailing their responsibilities
6. Schedule of board meetings, committee meetings, outside educational opportunities, and retreats for the coming year
7. Board Policy Manual
About the Organization
8. Mission, vision and values statements
9. Organizational history (for faith-based systems, also include the Sponsors’ history)
10. Summaries of the current strategic plan, long range capital financing plan and master facility plan
11. Organizational chart and the names of senior management and physician leaders
12. Dashboard or balanced scorecard, including performance measures for finance, market share, customer service and clinical outcomes, and community services
13. Quality and performance improvement plan or summary of the plan
14. Medical staff background: Purposes, organization, profile by specialty, strategic physician staffing plan
About the Environment
15. Environmental scan or summary of industry trends
16. Glossary of healthcare terms
17. Summary of the marketplace, primary competitors and relative strategic positions