Book description
The Carver Policy Governance® Guide series includes six booklets
that offer board members a description of John Carver's Policy
Governance model of board leadership. Policy Governance enables a
board to fulfill its accountability to its organization's
"owners," whether the owners are association members, city
residents, company shareholders, or a community of interest. Policy
Governance addresses the board's engagement in financial,
programmatic, and personnel matters; roles of officers and committees;
reporting and evaluation; agendas; and other aspects of the board job.
Ends and the Ownership helps boards distinguish between what an
organization is for and what it does (ends versus means)Â-a basic
feature of the innovative Policy Governance model. This important
guide also discusses the concept of ownership and includes sample
policies that can help board members effectively prioritize and govern.
The Policy Governance model is based on the functions rather than the
structure of a governing board. It outlines commonsense principles
about governing that fit together into an entire system. The practices
of the Policy Governance board, which are consistent with the
principles, allow it to control without meddling, focus on long-term
organizational outputs, powerfully delegate to a CEO and staff, and
discharge its fiduciary responsibility in a visionary, strategic
manner. Because the model is a total system, the Carver Policy
Governance Guide series offers boards a complete set of principles for
fulfilling their various obligations.
John Carver is internationally known as the
creator of the breakthrough in board leadership called the Policy
Governance model and is the best-selling author of Boards ThatMake
a Difference (1990, 1997, 2006). He is co-editor (with his wife,
Miriam Carver) of the bimonthly periodical Board Leadership,
author of over 180 articles published in nine countries, and author or
co-author of six books. For over thirty years, he has worked
internationally with governing boards, his principal practice being in
the United States and Canada. Dr. Carver is an editorial review board
member of Corporate Governance: An International Review,
adjunct professor in the University of Georgia Institute for Nonprofit
Organizations, and formerly adjunct professor in York University's
Schulich School of Business.
Miriam Carver is a Policy Governance author and consultant. She
has authored or co-authored over forty articles on the Policy
Governance model and co-authored three books, including Reinventing
Your Board and The Board Member's Playbook. She has
worked with the boards of nonprofit, corporate, governmental, and
cooperative organizations on four continents. Ms. Carver is the
co-editor of the bimonthly periodical Board Leadership and,
with John Carver, trains consultants in the theory and implementation
of Policy Governance in the Policy Governance Academy.
