nonprofit staff retreat agenda

The key is to make your retreat (and your board meetings) interesting and worthwhile for your board members. An experienced facilitator can help in the agenda design process to offer guidance on how best to mix different methodologies, how to allocate time over the retreat period, and how to make sure that different activities build on one another and move the group towards achieving the goals. Heres How To Resign From a Nonprofit Board, Nonprofit Insurance: Why a D&O Policy Is So Important for Your Organization, Better Nonprofit Performance Reviews: How To Shake Up the System So It Works for You, Everything You Need To Know Before Hiring a Freelance Grant Writer, What Really Motivates Nonprofit Employees? At this meeting, you may decide to put some of the items on hold, agreeing it is better to choose fewer items and accomplish them than to choose many and fail. It really bothers me to think that my donations might be spent on pampering instead of programs. It's nice when your facilitator can take a decent picture. You need to be a role model, and any actions that you take must be consistent with your normal leadership style. Having fun at a retreat contributes to producing important results. We cant meet our mission without our staff. I have stopped donating to several nonprofits which spent unnecessarily on such things. Copyright by Beth Kanter. Media Coverage of Your Nonprofit Event Can Make a Big Difference. The focus on the important rather than the urgent. Stay local to invest in your community, or travel to let your staff really disconnect. I suggest you NEVER do this, and ALWAYS go for a no frills, preferably free location. . Agendas can be like programs. The Perfect Staff Retreat Agenda I can only hope that those of you who dont work at ETR can take a little bit of our retreat and infuse it into your own, so that your staff retreats can be ever more exciting places of learning and connection. No software installation. Im away on vacation but needed to take time to respond and clarify. While retreat sessions that produce concrete outcomes can make a real difference to the organization on an operational level, the kind of substantive discussions across lines and reconnecting with one another can engender relationships that influence positively the capacity to work together for months into the future. This is something we dont often get to dive into during busy days. Whether you are the leader of a very large and complex organization including hundreds of staff, or a team leader with 12 team members, we hope it can help you attain the vision described above, and ensure you that you have a successful, results-oriented retreat. A comfortable location allows staff members to feel appreciated and also to feel like it is something other than a full day meeting. Then, in 1848, the "Fond-Gillarde" gallery, which cut the siderite vein after 160m, was dug. Our retreat had plenty of good food. allow people who telecommute or who are located in different geographical regions or who travel a lot the opportunity to re-connect. And it did, but not in that way that so often feels like busy work. 4 RETREAT BASICS There are many things to think about when you begin to plan a retreat. I hate the idea that taking care of staff is an expense that donors cant get behind. If necessary, you can meet in your office but perhaps use a conference room that you normally do not use. If specific break times are listed, people will be watching their watches and smartphones instead of engaging in the discussion. The retreat is an occasion to get your board and staff away from your usual meeting space, to take the time to really think about where the organization is going and how it will get there, and to get to know each other better. We also took part in pre-work addressing diversity and inclusion. Now, I realize that this critical topic gets skipped because board members dont want to deal with it, and/or staff dont know how to talk about it. Have your fundraising team plan a marketing campaign. Strategic Planning Part 6: The Board Retreat There would be plenty of activities that asked me to think hard, interact with colleagues, move around the room, and spend some time in personal reflection. The Truth About Four Common Nonprofit Myths, Lapsed Donors Are Like Old Friends. I work for Boys & Girls Clubs and saw you at the Southwest Leadership Conference great work! She is called upon by large organizations to tackle substantial change management / crisis management / leadership transitions requiring a compassionate truth-teller, a hands-on strategy advisor, a communications expert, and a focus on strong internal and external messaging. What are your goals and objectives? For example, the following logic suggested eliminating one office: We neednt invite anyone from that division because they are not interested in marketing discussions, and they dont have much to contribute in that area. Perhaps true, perhaps not. In general, high performing teams are able to work hard and play hard. One last note here participation decisions are often made based on conventional wisdom or parochial suggestions. Ive been conducting board and staff retreats, how board and staff members can get engaged, do your homework and hire the right person, Major Gift Readiness Assessment: 10 Questions to Ask and Answer, 4 Ways to Find a Fundraising Mentor or Coach to Raise Major Gifts, Simple Stress Relief for Busy Development Directors, 10 Ways to Improve Your Fundraising Mindset this Summer, Empowering Women Fundraisers: 9 Tips to Excel in Nonprofit Leadership, 7 Personal Pet Peeves that Are Undermining Your Fundraising. Im heading to the West Coast to facilitate a full staff retreat for one of my clients I actually reviewed this post MYSELF!!!! A retreat is a retreat. And yes, there are public spaces that can be used and if so, build the agenda in such a way that attendees get fresh air, a walk, perhaps conduct a session outside under a tree. Heres Why. Once you decide on the facilitator, the next steps are: developing the agenda, deciding on who is to attend, creating expectations about the retreat for the team or organization, and finding a suitable site. Whenever possible, hold your retreat in a new location someplace other than where you hold normal board meetings. Similarly, pre-work gets participants focusing on the content that will be delivered during the event. Please explore! There would be lots of opportunities for meaningful face-to-face connection with other ETRians. My BoD is big on follow up surveys and I want to make sure the survey is brief but helpful for future planning. If possible, the conference room should have windows, comfortable chairs, and enough room for smaller groups to work. In this opening session, you need to articulate a clear rationale for the retreat including how the retreat can contribute to the unit or teams agenda for the next year or so. Glow in the dark golf balls. Generally, it is better to err on the side of too many than to omit someone or some group that may be critical for future team effectiveness. The climate more informal and participatory encourages people to be open and clear with one another in ways that the office environment discourages. Clearly articulate the purpose and objectives of the retreat. First, a facilitator can be an outside consultant or someone from within your organization if it is large enough so they do not have much contact with your area, or they are from a unit that has this as role mandate (some HR units have this). Morning Session: Strategic Planning Discussion, Afternoon Session: Putting the Fun in Fundraising. Evaluate options. Trip agendas have been used mostly on tours. I was most impressed by how seamless they were, and how they moved the day forward in an exciting and engaging way. Pick a date and venue. On the other hand, if you have a larger organization, the most effective approach is to modestly combine all four of the agenda-development methods spelled out above. DO you need a large group . But pulling off a successful staff retreat can feel like a minefield of possible disasters. If the goal is to increase staff input and participation, then it is logical to extend an invitation to a greater number of people. I am proud to say that I have a hard working 15-person staff. ), Eight Simple Tricks to Secure Funding for your Nonprofit, Want To Set Up a Nonprofit Membership Program? Nonprofit Board and Staff Retreat Agenda Sample (Stop Having Poor It included items that were fun and made us feel part of something biggerlike adding a song we loved to the ETR playlist. (This music was played in the meeting room during transitions and breaks. Join us today! The list goes on. Staff structure New board member orientation (see attachment) president/executive committee 2. The New Nonprofit Approach To Team Building The retreat may not be set to only one purpose. Its so much more than an ordinary ice breaker, and it works great to get people talking. Scroll to the bottom of this article for a preview and feel free to print out your own copy. To this end, the day before the all-staff event, the R-Team participated in a half-day retreat of its own. Employees are more productive and motivated when they feel a greater sense of involvement in establishing their organizations goals and ideals. An ideal retreat results in MORE EFFECTIVE PROGRAM WORK. When is the last time your organization held a staff retreat? How to Design a Worthwhile Nonprofit Board Retreat | Davis Rather, you could do a survey of the team, and use that data to help inform your choices about the final goals and agenda. 2023 All rights reserved. When one of the action items is accomplished, that act should be noticed and celebrated. Lastly, consider the length of the retreat; will it be a few hours, one afternoon, or an all-day event? Before I knew it, the 20 people in the room were all crying. Here are some key areas to cover during your board retreat: A facilitator is a valuable tool to take advantage of when planning a nonprofit retreat. Heres Why. Whatever process you as leader end up choosing to help inform retreat design, a draft set of goals and an agenda can be finalized and shared within the team or organization four weeks or so in advance of the retreat. The first workings began around 1820. If you do your homework and hire the right person, you will not be disappointed. A good agenda usually features a mixture of these kinds of activities to help keep things active for all participants and, if designed well, learning and discussions from one kind of activity can contribute greatly to another activity. This is great! She leads the conceptualization, expansion and management of ETRs training and professional development work. The staff must authentically engage and value the input and insights of the board members. Creating a Fair and Supportive Work Environment: A Conversation with Joan Garry, The Promise & Peril of Creator Tools Like ChatGPT for Nonprofits, New Years Rituals for Nonprofit Professionals: 2023, Using smart tech to reimagine nonprofit work. Staff Retreat Agenda portofcascadelocks.org Details File Format PDF Dennis C. Miller Inc. United States of America. If this progress or at least some of it does not materialize, people will often get more disheartened than if the retreat had not happened at all. The amount of work that gets done at an off-site retreat setting is significantly more than gets done at one held in the office. Aside from the debrief which sounds great- Do you have any tips on some common follow up survey questions. Find out why board was ranked a leader and top epm product by softwarereviews in 2022, beating 15 other vendors to claim the highest spot. Recording decisions helps determine (a) whether agreements are real, and (b) that people are clear about the agreements. Its all in the planning. To re-engage and re-focus your board members, consider holding a retreat. And of course, wed have fun while we did all of these things. What makes an effective nonprofit retreat anyway? Nonprofit Board and Staff Retreat Agenda Items. It was truly a wonderful experience, one that I cant wait to repeat next year.
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