How to get onto a Board

[gomestar]



No, I don't. Should I take "Oenophile" off of my resume as well?

yes

 

[otc]

Maybe there is something with board in its name that you can join so that your resume looks like you are board material? You should have no trouble getting on your company's women's advisory board.

- Little boards can lead to bigger boards.  It can become a bit of a club - remember that "look and walk and talk like them" thing?  If someone on your little board is also on a big board, they might want to bring you along to the big boys' club as an ally.

In all seriousness, this is what I have heard. People don't end up on big boards without the experience of serving on smaller boards. Whether that's non-profit or the boards of smaller local companies, I don't know...but it does sound like stepping stones are what you need if you actually desire to be on one (as opposed to being in some position where someone proposes you join a board).
You'll have to serve for free (and do a good job and get noticed) on a non profit and then maybe a local bank/trust/etc before anyone's going to give you one of those slots where you get paid more than the median family income to show up at 6 meetings a year...

 

[GreenFrog]



FWIW my CEO is on a board as part of a local chapter under a nationally recognized organization.

I write all his president messages and dislike it very much only because I have no involvement in the board/organization he is partaking in. The result is me being pretty clueless and I end up getting a list of random things, and then write a bunch of BS and drivel.

Can I also say in my resume I was part of a board?

I don't know if this a serious question or not, but HELL YES. You spin that **** on your resume, son!

Depending on 1) what kind of 'random things' (aka data) are on that "list," 2) how you are 'delivered' this "list" (i.e., are you literally only given a list of material that you use to write these messages, or do you also do some primary / secondary research on your own for help in crafting these messages?, and 3) what the content / nature of those messages are (i.e., do you literally only get lists of BS material that can consequently only churn out pointless, unimportant, BS messages? or are these messages from your CEO of actual substance and importance wherein people will actually read, deeply consider, and actually respond / react to? even if you're simply drafting statements derived from secondary research that your CEO uses for notes at board meetings, that counts), you can easily craft this experience into a tangible, slightly / moderately compelling bullet point for your resume:

- Conducted primary and secondary market research, analyzed data, and generated market belief statements that the company CEO (concurrently a board member of 'nationally recognized organization) frequently publicly communicated to peer board members (it's obviously a long, wordy, and dense bullet point, so obviously feel free to swap out phrases / words to make it pithier).

My gut feeling, though, is that you literally just get a list of BS material and write a bunch of BS and drivel, as you mentioned above.

Damn shame.

Nvm! Ignore above advice!

 

[patrickBOOTH]

I think I have to just start being more active in the organizations at my fingertips and work from there. Ideally I would like to be on an arts board, however I have no money to give to get on one.

 

[mimo]

I would say you're right: volunteer for some crappy position of responsibility an an organisation to which you already belong, and either join something local and community-related (there are small arts projects too, you know), or start one. I will volunteer to join your new society whatever it is, as long as it's free, and vote for you as chairman.*



*Some restrictions apply.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

I will start the Williamsburg illuminati.

 

[VaderDave]



I have an interview tonight for a board position on a foundation that was recently created to help with fundraising in our community services district. In this case, the district announced the creation of the foundation and solicited applications from community members.

So the interview went well and I was offered a board position the next day. I really don't have any idea what I've gotten myself into. Hopefully it doesn't wind up sucking. I think it will be fun, though, and a good chance to get involved on some level in local politics.

 

[Trompe le Monde]

send them hairshots

 

[patrickBOOTH]



So the interview went well and I was offered a board position the next day. I really don't have any idea what I've gotten myself into. Hopefully it doesn't wind up sucking. I think it will be fun, though, and a good chance to get involved on some level in local politics.

Rub it in,why don't ya...

 

[poorsod]

So I hear NY City Opera is looking to raise $7 million by tomorrow. I imagine saving them is a sure way to their board.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

How about 7million Pesos?

 

[JayJay]



So the interview went well and I was offered a board position the next day. I really don't have any idea what I've gotten myself into. Hopefully it doesn't wind up sucking. I think it will be fun, though, and a good chance to get involved on some level in local politics.

Congrats!!!

 

[otc]

[VIDEO][/VIDEO]

Doesn't look so hard...

 

[Douglas]

mimo had good advice, manton's was also good but manton being manton (i mean this in a complimentary way) his experiences are clearly very heavily biased towards bigger boards with better name-brand recognition than many - even most.

My wife is on a small local board for a charitable organization that does good work but none of you are likely to ever have heard of it. They have a small budget of maybe $200K and one and a half employees, organizing volunteers for a specific purpose, relating to children in foster care, at the state level. She got this position by deciding, one day, like you, that she wanted to give back in some way, and started googling around, and cold-called them saying "I want to be on your board." She got the position.

It is a nauseatingly frustrating experience. She has raised on the order of $40,000 for the organization in two years basically entirely on her own energy and outreach, throwing a large fundraising event twice now and organizing happy hours and other shindigs around town, convincing donors and sponsors to cough up part of the till, etc. The other people on this board are morons. The main employee in charge at the org is also a moron. But she believes in the cause and puts up with it all.

I am proud that she does this important, impactful work at a very down and dirty level and in spite of the many challenges. But it takes a lot of time away from family and her job and takes a bit of a toll on all of us. And there are no glamour points.

On the other hand, I have been invited onto one local board that anyone in town here would know, and I am probably soon to be asked on to another. I can say that these invitations are at least partially linked to the fact that I have a C-suite position and am a capable enough fellow, but the truth is that I would not have been invited were it not for connections and donations that my family have already made that put me on certain lists. I declined the one position I was offered, as I have neither the cash to give at a board level nor the time to donate in lieu at this stage of my family/career life, at least not at the level I think is appropriate to honor the invitation.

So I would just say that it is easy to get on a crappy little board but it is likely to be frustrating and not glorifying, and definitely time-consuming. I'd probably advise most people in their 20s to steer clear of boards.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

More relevant and interesting information. My g/f currently volunteers for a non-profit and has raised a lot of money for them. I would like to get more involved in it with her and possibly see if I can get into that board in the future. I suspect that it is possible, but down the road a bit after I put in some hard work.

I also am very loosely involved with local NY chapters of associations dealing with the industry I work in. They don't have much money and all what they do is mostly networking. I'd like to get more involved in those and maybe some possibilities can open for me in the future either career-wise, or on their small boards.

I'd really like to be on the board of an arts organization, but they are occupied by high society, deep pocket individuals.