The Newsletter for Chairs of Theological School Boards
Vol. 4 No. 1

Evaluating the work you do.

Also, help us in our assessment. See below. 

As we head into fall, I tend to think about board composition and orientation because many boards use this season to orient new members or discuss adding new members and orienting them to the work.

Assessment is vital for any organization. In theological higher education, the typical assessments include finances, enrollment numbers, and any other KPIs that are important to the school.

One of the areas we often discuss is board assessment, specifically: How does the board conduct its work? This area is essential. It’s not enough just to assess the work of the schools; the board should regularly evaluate its own internal work and continually plan to improve.

We’ve done a significant amount of work on board assessment. Here’s a sampling:

• A podcast conversation between two wise leaders, Drs. Rebekah Basinger and Rod Wilson, about board assessment, which can be found here.
• A piece I wrote about building a culture of evaluation. It’s here.
• Dr. David Rowe, a former president and now governance coach, discusses questions boards can ask, which are outlined here.

These pieces would be suitable for board education and discussion, as they will prompt some conversation. We understand the power of good questions and gathering accurate data.

At the In Trust Center, we don’t just preach assessment; we also do it. Our board regularly assesses its own work, as well as the work we do as a center. Our team also periodically assesses its work.

I’m inviting you to help us evaluate a key aspect of our work: our communications. We’ve just launched a survey to gain a better understanding of how people use our communications and what they find valuable. It’s anonymous and should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. Would you take the survey so we can better address your needs, and would you please share it with your colleagues? You can find it here: survey

If you have questions about the survey we’re doing with the research firm MRI Simmons, or if you’d like to talk about our communications, send a note to editors@intrust.org.

If you have questions about assessment and how to implement it as a board or organization, please reach out to our team at resources@intrust.org.

Thanks for all you do in theological education.

Amy Kardash
President