Running head: BOARD MEETING REFLECTION

Board Meeting Reflection

Deric Batt
Ball State University

BOARD MEETING REFLECTION

Board Meeting Reflection

Due to academic and professional commitments, I had a rather hard time finding a board
meeting to attend. To achieve this assignment, I watched a Legislative Board Meeting on
Youtube, orchestrated and conducted by the legislature of Montgomery County, New York. This
meeting was held on March 24th, 2015.
This meeting began with a roll call and a vote to approve the minutes of the last meeting.
This was huge to me, as it was something I did not think about when helping organize the board
in our organization. The board approving the prior minutes, which were no doubt dispersed to
them prior to the vote, makes a ton of sense to me, as it essentially assures that all of the
members verify the accuracy of the report. To these board members, this whole thing seems
minor and routine, but it is a revolutionary idea to me. Verifying the accuracy of all reports about
the occurrences within board meetings is probably something really important, especially
considering the individual writing it could easily have an agenda. Had our classroom
organization been bigger, I might have tried to change our existing policy to reflect an approach
like this. For large organizations, I think this approach is probably vital.
After this, the legislature takes time to recognize a few individuals and causes. They
started with a proclamation acknowledging, alongside Montgomery Countys Court Appointed
Special Advocate (CASA), April as National Child Abuse Awareness Month. They read a
proclamation, after which point the CASA worker informed the board of the reality for many
families involved with CASA and passed out gifts of pinwheels. The pinwheels symbolized the
innocence of childhood and served as a symbol of child abuse awareness.
Interesting in this area was the concern about the gifts not being worth over $75 in value.
While the board members laughed about this, I think this was something that made a lot of sense.

BOARD MEETING REFLECTION

In one sense, this was very likely due to concerns about corruption among government officials,
as the gifting of services or goods can very easily create the image (if not the effect) of bias and
favoritism. Taking a step down, this can also create a similar appearance for boards in public or
private organizations. While accepting grants or donations as an organization is the very manner
in which non-profits work, accepting gifts as an individual or as board members can create
conflicts of interest and, I believe, even violate laws dictating the behavior of individuals
involved in not-for-profit industries. I would have to do further research on this, but I am
confident that, regardless of the law, it is still probably unethical to accept gifts above a certain
level. The pinwheels in this case were minor and very likely did not approach the $75 gift limit.
The board recognized two long term community servants in the county, reading two
separate proclamations recognizing the service of these individuals. This makes sense and was
probably a nice thing to do, but I honestly dont think it sparked any revelations in me. I think I
understand how and when, in general, to do this as a board. It was a nice thing to see, but far
from the most interesting or informational thing to learn from.
After this, things got really interesting (and tedious) to me. After these seemingly
laidback functions, the board got down to business. I believe this board had a lot of continuous
budget resolutions to pass, so they got down to doing this. Frankly, this became hard to follow, as
several resolutions would come up, discussion would be offered (and seldom taken up), votes
would be taken, and nearly every time the board would unanimously agree on the motion. This
went on for nearly ten minutes, with resolution after resolution coming and going in seconds. To
me, this probably illustrates a few things. One, this was probably an atypical meeting involving
funding for essential things. Secondly, I assume these were simple resolutions that all of the
board members had probably read and come to an understanding on prior to the actual board

BOARD MEETING REFLECTION

meeting. In some manner, this highlights the level of minutia that boards must process in order to
keep organizations functioning. These processes are clearly vital to the running of governments
or organizations, as they keep the gears moving. While one might assume these things would just
have standing funding, I suppose there is necessarily a need for oversight pertaining to the cost
and functioning of the institutions that run these things. Still, paying the light bill by a
democratic vote seems to be an annoying piece of tedium, albeit one that makes a lot of sense.
The last bit of business the board got down to was two resolutions pertaining to the hiring
of two separate employees in separate positions. These two resolutions, interestingly enough,
were put on hold until two missing members of the group could be present at the next meeting.
This indicated to me that, for the most part, the early resolutions were essentially housekeeping,
while also highlighting the importance the committee placed on having the input of the full board
on more serious matters. To some extent, I think this also indicates that the board has a mutual
respect for each other, as they easily had enough members to create quorum on the final two
resolutions yet declined to do so.
While this board meeting might not seem very important or informative, it told me a
number of things. It told me that board members must show concern about their ethics and
perceived impropriety. It told me that board members work best when they have a degree of
respect for each other. Most importantly, it told me that boards contain a lot of power, leaving
them often, at least at the local government level, as the final authority on even the smallest
measurements. While this really changes the way I view the functioning of boards of directors
and such, I have to admit that I would go insane practicing the discussion and passing of such
minutia in this class. Every week in SOCW300 comes with discussions in our Board of
Directors. If we replaced any of this discussion time with ten minute votes on continuous funding

BOARD MEETING REFLECTION

of things such as sewage bills in an organization of students, we would probably never speak
again. Still, in larger organizations, this all must inevitably be done.
To all of the board members in legislatures and organizations like the one in Montgomery
County, New York; you have my deepest sympathies.

BOARD MEETING REFLECTION

6
Reference

Montgomery County, New York Legislature. (2015). March regular meeting. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf8SV54ba1k