Welcome to The Governance Center - your resource for the best in governance learning.
Through distance learning, seminars, peer-to-peer discussions, and other tools, The Governance Center will help you address the issues your organization is facing now, while taking steps towards a stronger, brighter future.
As a board member, the skills you bring to the boardroom can be the difference between success and failure for your orchestra. Below you will find orchestra governance information and resources that you (and your fellow board members!) can use to make a positive difference in your organization.
Board Self-Assessment Tool: Developed in partnership with BoardSource and customized for orchestras, the assessment tool identifies areas of strength and opportunities for growth. Click here for more information.
Your Orchestra, Your Community: Roadmap to Success: A comprehensive assessment tool designed to help orchestras think deeply about their role in community from a holistic point of view and assess their own readiness for growth and improvement. Click here for more information and to download the tool.
Download Your Orchestra, Your Community: The Short Form – the abridged version of Your Orchestra, Your Community: Roadmap to Success – here.
Public Value Toolkit: An online toolkit of resources to assist orchestras in strategically assessing, improving, and communicating their public value. To access the Public Value Toolkit, your orchestra must be a League member. Click here for more information.
Operating Reserve Policy Toolkit for Nonprofit Organizations: A resource to help make a compelling case within the organization for the need to establish an operating reserve. Click here to download.
Financial Analysis Tool: Customized for orchestras, this tool will help you unpack your balance sheet and better understand the relationship between capital structures and mission. (Coming Spring 2012)
Diversity in Action Assessment: A new diversity assessment tool developed by BoardSource for board members to assess their perception and value of diversity; policies and practices; and board culture and dynamics. Click here to purchase tool.
Audio
Hear directly from orchestra boards across the country and the lessons they have learned.
Video
Highlights from the 2011 BoardSource Leadership Forum in Atlanta, Georgia on September 22-23, 2011
Developed by BoardSource these eBooks provide best practice strategies for nonprofit governance. For more information, click on the titles below.
Earn League Dollars for using this resource – click here for more information!
Board member-only meetings at the League’s National Conference are just one part of Conference learning that attracts more than 1,000 delegates. Stay-tuned for more information on the June 2012 Conference in Dallas.
Small-group, facilitated conference calls throughout the year give new and incoming board chairs the opportunity and safe space to learn from experienced board chairs, and share with other incoming board chairs. Mentoring Circles for incoming board chairs for group 2, 3-4, and 5-8 will be announced soon.
Earn League Dollars for using this resource – click here for more information!
Join the orchestra board members-only listserv for discussions with peers and information sharing. To join the listserv, please email our Member Services team at
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In-person seminars on governance practice as well as other topics of interest for orchestra trustees. These three seminars will be held in conjunction with the League’s national Conference in Dallas, June 2012.
Earn League Dollars for using this resource – click here for more information!
Hear from and get advice directly from nationally recognized governance experts.
Earn League Dollars for using this resource – click here for more information!
A collection of relative information from the League's Advocacy and Government department
“Charting a Path,” by Lowell Noteboom and John Goldman
"Good Governance for Challenging Times,” by Lowell Noteboom, Chair, League of American Orchestras (2003)
The Governance Center is made possible by a generous grant from MetLife Foundation.
Additional support for The Governance Center is made possible by grants from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Hearst Foundation, Inc., and National Endowment for the Arts, and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
