Extension
Before Your First Board Meeting
The Governance Preparation Workbook for New Board Members
This workbook produces documented governance principles and a contribution plan before the first meeting.
For the person who just joined a board of directors — nonprofit, corporate, advisory — and has never been told what the role actually requires beyond showing up. For the person who wants to govern, not just attend.
The Name It First Experience
Supporting the executive director is staff culture — governing is a different discipline, and this workbook builds it. Before Your First Board Meeting walks the new board member through what governance actually requires: your specific contribution to this board, your boundaries, your governance principles, and the difference between asking good questions in a meeting and fulfilling the fiduciary and strategic responsibilities the role actually demands. It is for the person who just joined a nonprofit, corporate, or advisory board and wants to govern — not just attend — who needs a clear picture of their role before the first meeting, not after the first year. You finish with documented governance principles and a contribution plan — what you are there to do, how you will do it, and what you will and will not take on.
You can opt into 30-, 60-, and 90-day check-ins from your account. We recommend you do — the point is to see what changed.
Sample questions
- What does serving on this board actually require of you that the formal description does not fully name?
- Where do you expect to contribute most — and where do you expect the governance line to be difficult to hold?
- What would you want the executive team to know about how you plan to serve in this role?
Research basis
Governance research / nonprofit management / fiduciary responsibility / organizational psychology
Choose your format.
Every format asks the same questions and produces the same document.
Print Paperbackpersonalize
A real book and a pen. Write in the margins. The most permanent version of you on a page.
$19.99
eBook + journal
The full guide on any screen, with a companion journal to write your answers by hand.
Not available
Audiobook
We read every question and every scenario aloud. For the commute, the walk, the dishes.
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Hardcoverpersonalize
The keepsake edition — sewn, ribboned, made to sit on a shelf and be returned to.
Not available
Digital Fill + membership+membership
Answer on screen. Your responses save as you go and assemble into your finished document.
$9.99
Hands-Free Interactive + membership+membership
Listen to each question and speak your answer. We capture it. You never touch a keyboard.
Not available
Everything packages
The Paperback Everything Package
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The Hardcover Everything Package
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The Premium Hardcover Everything Package
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Choose your pace.
The Essential path takes you to your finished document by the questions that matter most. The Full-depth path walks every question, every scenario, every angle. Both produce the same signed document — one just goes deeper on the way there.
Essential path
Shorter sessions. The questions that go directly to the document.
Full depth
Every question. Every scenario, every angle.
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