Rita Apaloo, President of AWC, led the discussion—she has assisted with board governance for several years, currently sits on advisory boards of seven different small businesses and facilitates a community involvement leadership program for minority business leaders that includes board leadership training.
To kick off the meeting, attendees paired up to review sample financial statements of an unknown business. The instruction was to relate or share anything at all that they notice about the reports. Let's just say that the list was not a long one. When asked for feedback on the assignment, the ladies said things like “I was confused; I wasn't sure what to do; I went blank, etc.” The purpose of the activity was to give them a flavor of what goes on in a board room and discuss the importance of knowing how to interpret financial reports as a board of director.
Once we got that out of the way, we got back to business as usual—having fun, connecting, learning and having a wonderful conversation.
We did have a small hurdle—we met in the common meeting area of the Global Market and the noise level was a bit high and presented a holding conversation problem. Lesson learned.
While participants learned the many benefits of serving on boards, the take away was that you can feel comfortable in the driver seat (making the decision to serve) once you understand your motivation, do your research, ask the critical questions and take all the time you need to ensure it is the right fit for you. Board service should leave you feeling good and rewarded, not overwhelmed and anxious.
Participants received information about resources around the Twin Cities where they can receive board training and additional information on serving on boards.
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