Board Retreats

The Urban Group appreciates and values all board members' time, and is particularly sensitive to board members serving in a volunteer capacity. Therefore extra care is taken to insure the retreat is engaging, productive, and time well spent.

The Urban Group's approach often includes in-depth preliminary work with the Executive Director and Board President to identify challenging issues. Frequently the entire Board is interviewed ahead of time to assure the retreat includes what each board member feels is important and will assure that their valuable time is respected.

Board retreats are often a time for board members to examine how well the organization is meeting its objectives, to develop short-term and long-term goals, and to develop strategies for accomplishing those goals. Board retreats can include the beginning stages of strategic planning such has creating or updating mission, vision and values for the organization. An added benefit is that members develop a closer relationship with their fellow board members, which helps to build a more committed and better performing team.

Many organizations only consider having a board retreat when they are experiencing serious challenges and change or the energy on their board is diminishing. Sometimes they have participated in a retreat in the past and haven't gotten the results they hoped to achieve. Other organizations want to maintain their vitality and remain on the cutting edge so they regularly participate in retreats.

Ruth Urban, a Certified Professional Facilitator, who conducts the retreats personally, has been a founding member and served on several non-profit boards, and has also been an employee and contractor for several non-profits. Ruth's years of organizational development work, conflict resolution, and management experience add to her knowledge of the unique challenges faced by all boards, for profit, non-profit and elected governing boards.