Governance Links

Boards and committees, by-laws and policies: these are some of the core elements of traditional governance. Below are links to recommended resources that delve into this topic.

Institute On Governance: Learning Tools - From basics to assessment. Great explanations and examples. Start here.

BoardDevelopment.org - A great collection of guidance for boards and committees.

BoardSource.org - Excellent collection of nonprofit board Q & A.

Co-operative Governance Manual by the Co-operative Federation of Victoria, Australia.

Co-operative Governance Newsletter Archives from the Canadian Co-operative Association

jannicemoore.com - A policy governance specialist with excellent introductory resources.

Policy Governance® Defined - A complete and useful theory for how an organization and it's board can effectively conduct themselves based on the use of policies.

Free Toolkit for Boards of Directors - Large collection of links assembled by Carter McNamara, PhD.

Examples of policies from assorted Egalitarian Communities

Bylaws: How Strong Is Your Co-op's Foundation?- An article by Karen Zimbelman

Distribution of Powers between the Board of Directors and Members in the
Co-operative Corporations Act - from Lawyer Iler-Campbell

Sample By-laws

http://www.iog.ca/publications/sample_bylaws.pdf

http://www.ilercampbell.com/files/GeneralByLawCoop.pdf - worker co-op

http://www.ilercampbell.com/files/GeneralByLawNonCoop.pdf - non-worker, non-housing co-op

Roberts Rules of Order

Although Co-op Tools recommends consensus decision-making, we realize that many organizations still use a Robert's Rules structured meetings and voting guidelines.

Robert's Rules of Order - Some Basics Edited by Carter McNamara, PhD

robertsrules.org

Answers about abstaining