Does your board or organization need help with...

• mission clarity?
• board development?
• clarity on governance structure and roles?
• strategic thinking and focus?
• Quaker process and decision-making?
• board orientation, including an orientation to Quaker decision-making?
• delineation of board and staff roles and responsibilities?
• staff development and team-building?
• evaluation and continuous improvement?
• specific process issues?
• working together?
• defining the difference between a board’s process and a meeting for business?
• instituting term limits?

Do you ever wish you could talk to someone about how other boards function? Do you ever wish you knew of people who are familiar with both board function AND Quaker practice? Friends Board Consulting would like to help.

What is Friends Board Consulting?

Friends Board Consulting, previously Friends Board Training and Support Project, has been assisting a wide variety of organizations since 1993. The project grew out of a concern from the leadership of several Quaker organizations who were seeking greater effectiveness at the board and organizational levels. Recognizing the unique quality of Quaker decision-making and its inherent strengths and challenges, the project supports not only Quaker practice, but helps to integrate best practices as cited by experts in nonprofit governance.

Friends Board Consulting has served over 150 clients, and remains a source of support for organizational change and effectiveness.

In 2002, the project came under the care of Friends Services for the Aging, an association of Quaker senior service providers, as a service to its own member organizations and to the wider Religious Society of Friends.

Friends Board Consulting services include:

• referral of appropriate consultants
• ideas for group facilitation and training
• provision of suggested fee scale
• referral to print and web resources
• collaborative problem-solving

Friends Board Consulting serves:

• organizations of all sizes
• boards of directors and school committees
• committees and working groups
• staff heads
• change agents
• process facilitators

How does it work?

Friends Board Consulting maintains an internal list of consultants who are Friends or who have demonstrated their effectiveness in work with Quaker organizations. Organizations seeking assistance contact Friends Board Consulting, review the scope and nature of the perceived need, and collaboratively determine what services are needed and which consultant might be the best fit. FBC does not distribute the entire list. The client contacts the consultant and negotiates the terms of the engagement.

Typically, people included on the project’s consulting list have agreed to return 10% of the fee back to FBC. Beyond the consulting service, the staff is available for phone or email problemsolving and discussion, resource referral, and help with specific projects, such as developing a board orientation program or a board manual. If such consultations require more than an hour, a fee may be negotiated.

Friends Board Consulting looks forward to serving you.

A partial list of organizations served:

• American Friends Service Committee
• Farm and Wilderness Camps
• Friends General Conference
• Friends Services for the Aging
• Friends United Meeting
• Friends World Committee for Consultation, Section of the Americas
• The Hickman
• Kennett Friends Home
• McCutchen Friends Home
• New York Yearly Meeting
• Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
• Quaker Information Center
• Right Sharing of World Resources
• Woolman Hill Conference Center

What have people said about the work of Friends Board Consulting?

“I want to thank you for the fine presentation to our group. It was just the right pace, just the right content. Your comments after our initial discussion were very helpful. There was lots of good buzzing going on after you left.”
          — Rich Ailes, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Nominating Committee

“You were so helpful in laying the groundwork, both spiritually and in terms of process.”
          — Mary Lee Morrison, Woolman Hill Conference Center

“Friends Board Consulting provides a vital service to Friends organizations. While we use consultants for various purposes, the unique Quaker culture often requires using a consultant who knows both board development and Quaker decision-making. Friends Board Consulting provides this important human resources.”
          — Mary Ellen McNish, General Secretary of the American Friends Service Committee