Please Start Writing the Policy Manual

Writing the Reach Unlimited Board Policy Manual

We are ready to start writing a Reach Unlimited Board Policy Manual (RPM). We must now engage in the deadly art of group writing. The 11 epistles I sent you the past two months (still posted at www.ReachGovernance.blogspot.com ) provide a framework for this debating / writing task. If you have not read them, please do so now.

Ends are what we provide to whom at what cost. Means are anything that is not an End. I recommend we start with writing board Means policies. Means are dictated in three of the four categories:
2.0 Executive Director Limitations (“Limits”)
3.0 Governance Process (“Process”)
4.0 Board-Management Delegation (“Links”)
Process (3.0) and Links (4.0) are board Means. Staff Means are defined only by the Limits in 2.0 and the instructions of the ED – not the board.

I suggest that 1.0 Ends not be started until the other three categories are complete. This sequence enables the board to be clear about its own job and the job of its officers and committees, as well to clarify the authority of the Executive Director (ED) before specifying Ends.

Following is a paste of assignments listed in the yet unpublished minutes of our last meeting. “The Board determined that the entire board would be involved in developing the policy manual, but the appropriate committee would be primarily responsible for the corresponding components of the policy manual:

1. “Ends”(Ends 1.0) = Goal, Mission and Vision of Reach Unlimited (i.e. who is served and what services [at what cost]): Stakeholder Committee.
2. Executive Limits (Limits 2.0) (defines limits of Executive Director’s authority): Executive/Finance Committee, Property & Services Committee, and Sustainability Committee.
3. Relationship of Executive Director to Board of Directors (Links 4.0): Executive/Finance Committee, Governance Committee.
4. Board Processes (Process 3.0): Executive/Finance Committee, Governance Committee
Rev. Lindstrom suggested an August deadline for committee input. Larry Andrews agreed to send out blog link and “Starter Statements” for four components of policy manual.” Committee chairs, please start the process.

Following are the promised “Starter Statements”
1.0 Ends – “Reach Unlimited, Inc. is dedicated to providing quality support services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.”
2.0 Executive Director Limitations – The ED shall not cause or allow any practice, or organizational circumstance, activity, or decision that is either imprudent or in violation of commonly accepted business or professional ethics.
3.0 Governance Process – The purpose of the board, on behalf of citizens within a 30 mile radius of our campus, is to see to it that Reach Unlimited (a) achieves appropriate results for appropriate persons for an appropriate cost (as specified in the board’s Ends policies) and (b) avoids unacceptable actions and situations (as prohibited in the board’s Limits policies).
4.0 Board-Management Delegation – The board’s sole official connection to the operational organization, its achievements, and conduct, will be through the Executive Director.