They are volunteers, too!
Look here for information and the latest techniques to develop your board or committee. The purpose is to help those who work or serve on nonprofit boards of directors or committees.

~September 2009~

Advisory group members have specific roles and responsibilities.  The group, in aggregate, should have people who represent all those responsibilities.  For example, a hospital volunteer program advisory team might want people with previous experience as volunteers in a health care setting.  This does not mean everyone needs to have been a volunteer in a hospital, but it would be advisable to have 50% of the membership have had such an experience.  Those having served as volunteers should be diverse.  For example, if the hospital has a youth program, someone who was a youth volunteer should be on the team.  If the program has a guild, someone who was or is a member of the guild should be represented.  The objective is balance.  And do not forget gender, age ranges, race or ethnicity balance.

In order achieve this balance it is critical to create a profile of the current advisory group members.  To do that you need to identify the roles and/or responsibilities of members and chart who has what type of experience.  A worksheet to assess members’ skills and abilities in the area of roles and responsibilities is a useful tool.  Click here for a sample form to help in the profiling of an existing advisory group.