Conference Offerings for Newer Board Members

For new board members attending the Joint Annual Conference, many topics are offered to continue learning and growing both as individuals and as part of the governance team. Panel Sessions are informative and also provide opportunities to make new connections.

Among the Panel Sessions of particular interest to newer board members:

• The Art of School Boarding overviews fundamental concepts that make boards effective and individual board members exceptional.
• Practical Parliamentary Procedures will offer a basic summary of Robert's Rules of Order to add efficiency, effectiveness, and fairness to your board meetings.
• In Every Voice Matters: Engaging Those We Serve, Batavia School District 101 will share success strategies for successful two-way engagement with the community and all stakeholders.
• Decisions, Decisions offers real-life scenarios for board members to better understand decision-making nuances when sitting at the board table.
• Board Policy Work: Your Tool for Success will share how boards can effectively maintain and use an up-to-date Policy Manual.
• Basics of School Finance: Revenues will offer an overview of the property tax cycle, Evidence-Based Funding, and other sources of revenue for school districts.
• Basics of School Finance: Expenditures will review business office operations and the business administrator’s role in managing cash, meeting budget responsibilities, purchasing, state financial reporting, and overseeing the expenditure process, including ESSA requirements.
• Superintendent Evaluation: Pathways to a Production Process explores steps contributing to the development and refinement of a comprehensive, superintendent evaluation process and Bloomingdale SD 13 governance team representatives will share their process.
• Does Your Board Have a Monitoring Plan? will discuss a practical approach for effectively monitoring district performance and improvement through board policy.
• No Weak Links: Fostering Positive Intra-Board Relationships will examine the board's duty to establish a strategic plan and provide policy-level guidance, and include a discussion of common problems involving fiduciary duties, ethics, and meeting procedure.

 
Two orientation sessions will also be offered to walk attendees through some of the Conference features, offer suggestions for planning their agenda, and help them navigate the Conference facilities. Because new board members are bound to have a few questions, a conversation session will provide an opportunity for new board members to share experiences and lessons learned with other new board members.
 
Details on these sessions and more are available on the Conference website. The 2021 Joint Annual Conference will be held November 19-21 in Chicago.