GET ON BOARD

Dr. Ted Flickinger IAPD President and Chief Executive Officer

Last issue, I urged your board to develop a Board Member Code of Conduct, a public document that spells out your board's commitment to working with the highest integrity. A public statement like a Board Member Code of Conduct reassures the people you serve and helps focus the board as a whole on ethical standards.

But integrity begins with each individual. And, believe me, serving on a park, recreation or conservation board is not a job that is free from ethical dilemmas.

Serving on a park, recreation or conservation board is not a job that is free from ethical dilemmas.

In 2001, the IAPD sent questionnaires to 1,800 park, recreation and conservation board members seeking their opinions about ethical issues. Nearly 50 percent returned the questionnaires. Many respondents indicated that they occasionally encountered a situation requiring ethical decision-making. The situations varied and included being asked to break rules, regulations or policies on such issues as: allowing family members into closed programs; pressuring the executive to hire staff based on recommendations by other board members; going to conferences at taxpayer expense and not attending educational sessions; using agency facilities and equipment at no charge; and — alarmingly — revealing closed-session discussions to friends and the general public.

Board members reported that they often felt "between a rock and a hard place." They said they felt pressure to allow friends, relatives and constituents special consideration. This is not unusual. Situations invoking ethical decisions are sometimes less cut and dried than decisions regarding matters of agency policy, which tend to address legal loopholes.

The Board Member's Creed

In my book, Get on Board, and at IAPD workshops on boardsmanship, I've included the Board Member Code of Conduct that I discussed in the last issue of Illinois Parks & Recreation. Another helpful document is the Board Member's Creed. The Board Member's Creed is a more personal instrument: a quick set of reminders that can help put you in the right frame of mind for effective board service. The creed is a list divided into five parts. I suggest putting each part on an index card and then periodically reviewing the five index cards.

I think you'll be surprised at the power of this deceptively simple little list.

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The Board Member's Creed is a more personal instrument: a quick set of reminders that can help put you in the right frame of mind for effective board service.

6 Illinois Parks and Recreation www.ILipra.org

The Board Member's Creed 1. As an individual member of the board, I will: • Recognize the integrity of my fellow board members and the merit of their work; • Be motivated only by a desire to serve the people of my community; • Recognize that it is my responsibility, together with my fellow board members, to see that the agency is properly run — not to attempt to run it myself; • Work with the executive of the agency — not over or around him or her; • Conduct board business only at legally called board meetings; • Remain politically nonpartison on agency issues; • Attend continuing education programs to learn about the proper duties and functions of a board member and to stay abreast of the trends and issues affecting the field. 2. In performing my proper functions as a board member, I will: • Deal in terms of general agency policies; • Function in meeting the legal responsibility that is mine, as part of a legislative, policy-forming body, not as on administrative officer. 3. In maintaining desirable relations with other members of the board, I will: • Respect the opinions and decisions of fellow board members; • Recognize that authority rests with the board as a whole, not with me as an individual; • Make no disparaging remarks in or out of meetings about fellow board members; • Recognize that promising in advance how I will vote on any proposition under consideration closes my mind to other considerations, facts and points of view that may be presented in the meeting; • Make decisions in board meetings only after all sides of the question hove been presented; • Consider unethical (and thus avoid) secret meetings of the board held without the presence of the executive. 4. In meeting my responsibility to my community, I will: • Attempt to appraise fairly both the present and the future needs of the community; • Attempt to procure adequate financing and support for agency programs, facilities and services; • Interpret, as best I can, the needs and attitudes of the community to fellow board members and the executive; • Insist that business transactions of the agency be ethical, open and above board. 5. In working with the executive, I will: • Hold the executive responsible for the administration of the agency and give her or him the authority commensurate with that responsibility; • Expect the agency to be administered by the best-trained professionals available; • Participate in board decisions only after considering the recommendations of the executive; • Expect to spend more time in board meetings on policies, programs and procedures than on day-to-day operations; • Give friendly counsel and advice to the executive; • Refer all complaints to the executive and, if necessary, for other issues, insist that the source present them in writing to the board as a whole; • Present any personal criticisms of employees to the executive and not to the employees; • Provide adequate safeguards for the executive and other personnel so they may perform their duties on a professional basis.

IAPD Calendar September 21 IAPD/Illinois Conservation Foundation Chicagoland Golf Benefit Winnetka Golf Club Winnetka Park District September 24 Sources of Alternative Revenue Seminar Vogelei Barn Hoffman Estates Park District October 18-22 NRPA Congress & Exhibition San Antonio, Texas November 3 Legal Symposium Hamburger University, Oak Brook 2006 January 26-28 IAPD/IPRA Annual Conference Hilton, Chicago Want Electronic Versions of the Board Member's Creed or the Board Member Code of Conduct? Contact IP&R editor, Rodd Whelpley, at rwhelpley@ILparks.org.

www.ilparks.org September/October 2005 7