1. Early Bird Rates have been extended through October 20th. Click here for more info.
2. Session descriptions have been updated!
3. Presenter biographies are now available.
4. Download a copy of the brochure to share with your colleagues.

The next annual Governance Conference will be held Friday, November 5, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. It will happen at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center.

“Though the economy may be stabilizing, there is no going back to business as usual for the nonprofit sector. Going forward requires us to envision a different future for our organizations. But only those boards that are willing to transform themselves will succeed in transforming their organizations.”

We are excited to announce that the author of this statement, Linda C. Crompton, will be keynote speaker for the 11th Annual Washington State Nonprofit Governance Conference. Crompton is President & CEO of BoardSource of Washington, D.C.  She will be speaking on the topic of Transformative Governance.Registration details along with session descriptions will be available soon so be sure to check back. If you’d like to make sure you don’t mess anything please email tahoma @ npcenter.org to make sure you get the latest information as soon as it is available. You can also sign up for our e-newsletter to stay current, details are to the right of this post.

Many of you filled out evaluations at the conference, and we thank you for that. Now we’re hoping you will share with us the impact the conference sessions had on your role as a board member.

In addition, some of you who attended did not fill out an evaluation form, and we really would like to know what you thought of the conference.

Therefore, please take just a few minutes to complete an online, confidential survey. Once you do so, you will be given a code which you can use to be in a drawing for a free seminar from The Nonprofit Center.

The link to the survey is here. Thanks for your input.

Pathways to Nonprofit Excellence, by Paul C. Light

Pathways to Nonprofit Excellence “is the second major report of the Nonprofit Effectiveness Project, an endeavor of the Brookings Institution’s Center for Public Service.” It “offers substantive advice on both the characteristics of a well-tuned organization and where to begin the journey to improvement.”

The Nonprofit Center has a few copies of this book available at the special conference rate of $15 (a 20% discount) plus shipping (unless you want to pick it up).

This is a valuable resource for all board members. Call the Center at 253-272-5844 right away to get your copy.

Upcoming Governance Training and Resources

We are pleased to present a number of webinars produced by the Nonprofit Risk Management Center. The first of the new year will be: House of Sand or Foundation of Stone: The Board of Directors/Trustees on Wednesday, January 6, from 11 a.m. to Noon. (Location TBA) Click here for registration.

The first webinar of 2010 will examine methods for evaluating and addressing governance risks. The program will examine a wide range of topics including the composition of the board and best practices for empowering the board to discharge its legal responsibilities.

Another excellent resource for governance training is our partner, United Way of King County. They have a number of board-related training sessions scheduled for next year. Here’s the first:

Getting Your Board to Raise Money Joyfully by Susan Howlett will be offered on February 12 from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. in Seattle. The cost is $40 per person ($35 for 2 or more). Click here for more information and registration.

The Washington Nonprofit Handbook is published!!! This outstanding resource for all board members is a comprehensive compilation of the laws and regulations that apply to nonprofits in Washington. It is available online by clicking here (opens a PDF document). Very shortly we will have a couple of copies of the publication in our library if you want to stop by and look at it. This book is a service of Washington Attorneys Assisting Community Organizations (WAACO)

He proposes choosing a future of Rejuvenation for the nonprofit sector, and he issued a challenge to each one of us to do things differently to claim that future.

Click here to read the whole post.

Unfortunately, we do not have the capability to post all the handouts on our website for a number of reasons. A few of the presenters were not aware of this and happened to mention it during their session. We apologize for this miscommunication.

If you would like to request handouts from one of the sessions, please email megan@npcenter.org Please note that this is just for the sessions mentioned above and we are not able to email every single handout for the conference (as there were quite a few.) Thank you for your understanding!