What is Policy Governance?

We have moved the governance section of Ballantyne & Associates to its own domain: Governing.ca

Please follow this link and go there now

A feature of Governing dot ca will be a forum which will include password-protected ongoing conferences for our clients and friends to hold asynchronous meetings and otherwise keep in contact with one another. It will be useful for maintaining read-only reference files, minutes, and policies. It will mean that groups can work together even when members are travelling.

We have already included new free articles and resources at Governing dot ca.

This page remains so that if you have bookmarked this page you can still find your way to our new material. We understand that removing legacy pages causes 'link-rot' of the World Wide Web. We would not want to do that.

It begins with a simple premise:

the job of the board is to see to it that, on behalf of whomever the board perceives to be the ownership, the organization achieves what it should and avoids situations and conduct that are unacceptable.

Most literature advises boards to govern by developing policies. Policy Governance describes specific policy categories. All that the board has to say is contained within those categories. This suite of policies ensures that the organization achieves what it should, is accountable for results, and acts toward the staff and the public in an acceptable manner. Also, the board enacts policies that require it to perform its duties in a disciplined manner.

Policy Governance^® is a complete model for board governance which has been developed by John Carver of Carver Governance Design, Inc. His seminal book on the subject is Boards That Make a Difference, published in 1990 by Jossey-Bass Inc.