Has your Board of Directors been paying attetion to the new IRS Form 990? The questions on the new form should lead Board to better governance and to more transparency.The IRS asks if the organization has a Conflict of Interest Policy. It also asks if the organization has a Document Retention Policy. And, most importantly, an up-to-date set of By Laws.
The Conflict of Interest Policy should insist that anyone sitting on a Board of Directors reveal any conflicts that they may have in voting on issues that come before the Board. Do they do business with a vendor that may make a proposal to the organization? Are they related to anyone doing business with the organization? The policy should be distributed to each Board member at the beginning of each organizational year and a disc losure form should be signed by each Board member each year.
The Document Retention Policy should outline how long the organization will maintain the documents that it produces: financial records (must be kept at least seven years); meeting minutes (forever); correspondence; publications; membership applications; database records, etc. This policy should be created and then reviewed every year or so to determine whether it is still valid.
Anyone wanting a sample of either of these policies can e-mail me at sheila@totmgtsol.com
