Just like some of the recent cold fronts moving into the area, TASI’s board is working to instill clear and professional governance to ensure the organization’s vision and mission.
In a process that began over a year ago, the TASI board is amending, creating and seeking specific processes and procedures that take away some of the guesswork from routine programming to ensure our members, tenants, patrons and guests have the most engaging experience possible with us.
No two non-profits institutions are the same, but governance and leadership share many traits across private and private sectors. Good leadership is rooted in the ability to achieve growth and sustaining the engagement of people to, hopefully, accomplish something extraordinary together.
There are tried and true equations that can be applied to achieve this, but I’ll only torture readers with ones that are most mission critical:
Methodical processes
Clear goals
Fair compensation and recognition
Clear communication and respect
Relationships are often transactional — and that’s OK — what matters to most is whether your team is engaged in what they’re doing and want to remain engaged for personal or group achievement.
It doesn’t matter in which sector that leadership is taking place as each requires people who have been engaged and want to remain engaged for personal and group accomplishment.
A challenge for The Studio, like many non-profits, is that it takes both paid and unpaid people to fulfill our mission.
We mostly engage people initially through volunteerism and membership participation. We have to work from a different sense of equity than a business operation. TASI is committed to “community equity,” and that is a mix of financial resources, but also social value.
We strive to build and maintain relationships to acquire what is “in-kind” streams that don’t always measure in a financial sense, but has significant value to TASI. For example, we rely on volunteers and their time, donated goods, and pro-bono expertise that a for-profit would otherwise have to pay for in a vendor relationship.
The social return is important, as is the relationship potential that can be made from in-kind associations. The lack of social return can be detrimental especially in small or niche communities. Governance is about being inclusive in hearing feedback from community stakeholders and incorporating this reflection into courses of action as needed. Stakeholders will often tell organizations exactly how they feel — the challenge is whether or not your organization leadership is listening.
Standing alone is not necessarily a sign of leadership — it could very well be indicative of the opposite. There are certainly variables organizations have little or no control over, but building and maintaining good governance processes mitigates any runaway factor. In fact, good governance can prevent catastrophe.
Leadership and governance are a continual process, much like keeping a musical instrument in tune. It has to be tweaked here and there to perform the way you want or need it to.
Every board member, tenant and employee are involved with this dynamic. Organizations are real-time learning laboratories where people have to take the time to help everyone understand the complexities of issues, how to work effectively with diverse people, and how to implement the best practices of leadership.
Core competencies The Studio board of directors is committed to improve.
Financial Management: By nature of our work and that of our tenants and partners, we deal with narrow profit margins and we need to make sure all of our financial arrangements are equitable to all involved. Additionally, where grants are concerned we are entrusted with public funds (tax dollars) and private giving. We need to be compliant in ensuring we disburse funding clearly and show stakeholders connections of how their giving is at work.
Human Resourcing: I read somewhere that money doesn’t change the world, people do. We must better know how to assign people to tasks and manage those tasks and workers with a sense of fair accountability. We embrace diversity of our community, but we’re committed to better demonstrate those cultural competencies that bring out the best in people to work together to do great things. Our resources are limited, so we must be committed to including diversity in our community to find the best people to help us realize our vision and mission.
Program Knowledge: Part of our professional competence is to seek and attract those experts that can grow our programming in concert with TASI goals.
Governance: Every nonprofit organization must have a board of directors. The TASI board is committed to training on the roles and responsibilities of nonprofit boards. Your feedback is always wanted and appreciated. So often, organizations are averse to feedback — we want to know what you’re thinking.
Planning: Sustainable arts programs will never be able to reach everyone who can benefit without community involvement and participation. We attempt to create realistic plans and we seek to build relationships (yes, that word again) to further any plans.
Community Relations and Communication: The most effective nonprofits are “in touch” with the community ithey serve. We cannot be afraid to tell our story, seek financial resources via fundraising, meet and greet, network, and be visible in and to the community. We are a community-based organization which was founded by Greg Busceme to be of benefit to this community.
I want everyone to know that The Studio is an artifact of a learning culture and we have a learning agenda we are building and implementing. Some items in this are singular events, but most of it will be ongoing — learning never ends.
Our learning will at times take place with formal training, but also through experiential learning where other leaders and organizations share their stories and experiences, case studies, discussion questions, and organic conversations. The key will be in implementing policies and procedures when necessary.
According to Giving USA, Americans contribute almost $500 billion to charitable organizations annually. Add that to the tax dollars allocated to non-profit organizations plus the income that groups like TASI might earn through tenant fees, rentals, event tickets and art sales, it doesn’t take an economist to realize the scope of the nonprofit sector.
The IRS states they are 29 different types of non-profits and the primary objective is not to make taxable monetary profit, but that the public good is its primary goal.
That is The Studio’s goal — to ensure art resources in our community be the best they can be.
Stephan Malick is TASI board chairman