Your Board’s Commitment To The Future

Hi

My wife, who is a subscriber to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, received a letter penned from their Board Chairman, James Houghton. It has some very important points that will be valuable to any group that works with directors, be it for- or non-profit.

Here is our quote for the day.

"My greatest point is my persistence. I never give up in a match. However down I am, I fight until the last ball. My list of matches shows that I have turned a great many so-called irretrievable defeats into victories." - Bjorn Borg, Professional Tennis Player

To your success,

Doug Halladay

President and Founder
Halladay Education Group Inc.
www.HalladayEducationGroup.com

--> Get my updates @ www.twitter.com/halladay

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In This Issue
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1. In The News

2. Popular Services

3. Your Board’s Commitment To The Future

4. Online Store Products

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1. In The News
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APPLICATIONS HOLDING STEADY AT PRIVATE SCHOOLS
Richmond private school officials will be holding their breath Tuesday, (March 17) when acceptance letters go out to high school students...

SMALLER COLLEGES MUST BE SAVVY IN A DOWN MARKET
Smaller private schools also should frankly assess their course offerings and faculty. Discontinuation of certain courses may be advisable in order to...

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2. Popular Services
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(A) STARTING A SCHOOL

Starting a school can be challenging and you never have a second chance to make a first impression. This is why you need a firm that has experience starting schools in USA, Canada, and Internationally. Please click here for more information.

(B) STRATEGIC PLANNING

We can lead the development of a comprehensive Strategic Plan for your private or public school, which will build consensus, motivate donors, and define critical priorities for your Board and Administration to improve your school. Please click here for more information.

(C) BOARD GOVERNANCE WORKSHOPS

Do you want your school to have better leadership? Our full-day governance workshop in combination with our interactive online surveys will fine-tune your board’s performance and refocus their priorities. Please click here for more information:

(D) SCHOOL EVALUATIONS

A School assessment and review is critical to knowing if your school is heading in the right direction. You need to keep track of how your school is performing and how to stay competitive. As a board member are you confident that your Head of School and staff are making the right decisions? Is your school "firing on all its cylinders?" Are you sure that your school is doing the best it can? Get the whole picture with HEG's In-Depth School Performance Review. Please click here for more information:

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3. Your Board’s Commitment To The Future
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My wife received a letter from the Chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. No, it is not personalized, but it demonstrates that a little foresight and public relations can go a long way. What caught my attention is that Mr. Houghton recognized that his stakeholders need to be informed on the strategic direction that the Met is taking and the strategies they are putting into place to ensure that the many subscribers to the Met will continue to enjoy their.

Here is an excerpt from his opening paragraph:

"Over the last few months, we have all heard much about how the ongoing global financial crisis has afflicted so many of the nation’s leading cultural institutions, as well as the foundations and other funding sources that support them. The Metropolitan Museum is a robust institution, but despite its manifest strengths has not been immune to the consequences of this turbulent economy. I am writing to brief you on the circumstances in which the museum now finds itself – and to report on the steps it is taking to provide both short- and long-term remedies without jeopardizing its covenant with the public. Thus the Museum faces the unprecedented challenges of our time fully committed to fulfilling its mission."

Did you note the reference to achieving their mission? Yes, I spoke about that yesterday in my eNewsletter. Good boards need to know their mission and be committed to developing strategies to ensure that mission is achieved.

The Chairman then goes on to explain the strategies they will implement to respond to their situation. This approach demonstrates transparency as well as including their stakeholders in the solution. This will empower their community and trust-building. He then makes reference to the Museum’s principles and polices. Again using them as their sounding stone for their decisions.

How is your board dealing with today’s challenges and empowering your community to be part of the solution? Do you have a plan in place to manage our challenging times?

To find out more about our firm’s board governance services and how we can help improve your board’s effectiveness, please email HEG at info@halladayeducationgroup.com to discuss your needs or click here for more information.

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4. Products At Our Online Store
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Here are two sets of popular Tool Kits to help you start and/or lead your school more effectively.

>> (A). STRATEGIC PLANNING TOOLKIT (#1 BEST SELLER)

Learn how to develop your own Strategic Plan effectively with our step-by-step instructions that contains our Workbook and Manual. Click here to get more details.

>> (B). START-A-SCHOOL TOOLKIT (#2 BEST SELLER)

Are you still struggling with starting your School? We share with you how to start a school from the ground up. Click here to get more the details.

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To your success,

Douglas Halladay
President and Founder

Halladay Education Group Inc.

P: 604.868.0002 / F: 868.472.8737 / Email: info@halladayeducationgroup.com
www.HalladayEducationGroup.com

P.S. Do not forget to check out our secure Online Store for ways to invest in improving or starting your own school or non-profit.

Board Governance - The Key To School Success

Hello Inner Circle Member,

Welcome to our 33 new members to HEG Inner Circle eNewsletter.

If you are in Vancouver Canada right now, you will be basking in our clear blue skies and fantastic ski conditions at our local mountains. Yesterday my father in-law flew me over on his Cessna to Victoria for a meeting at Dunsmuir Lodge. This facility overlooks the Strait of Georgia with views all the way west to our snow covered coastal mountains, the Gulf Islands, and the Olympic Mountain Range in Washington.

Most importantly however is that we are basking in our Vancouver Canucks hockey team and their continued winning streak. If the playoffs start today, we would be in fifth place and taking on the Chicago Blackhawks. Special note: Vancouver not won the Stanley Cup in our 34 year history!

Our firm has been busy with new clients in the UAE, Vietnam, Korea, Saudi Arabia, and India. We thank all our happy clients and their trust in our services. Our projects span the development of new International K-12 International Baccalaureate Schools to pre-evaluation of public schools as part of a pre-reform exercise.

Here is the quote of the day.

The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.

- Charles Kettering

Today I am going to talk about effective board governance. Research shows that effective schools have effective board leadership. Is your board leading or managing the school? The best way to maximize board effectiveness is to ensure that they fully understand it's governance responsibilities and parameters of its leadership role.

To your success,

Doug Halladay

President and Founder

Halladay Education Group Inc.

www.HalladayEducationGroup.com

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In This Issue

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1. In The News

2. Focused Boards the Key to School Success

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1. In The News

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TWO LOCAL PRIVATE SCHOOLS MAY CONSIDER A MERGER

... there have been no formal talks about merging. The schools decided to send the letters home to put some rumours to rest and reassure parents and students.

ENROLLMENT TUMBLES AT Cape Coral SCHOOLS

The school plans to once again offer classes for sixth-grade students for the 2009-10 school year. The loss of students has been painful for private schools...

ENROLLMENT AS ISSUE FOR PRIVATE SCHOOLS? NO HERE, NOT YET

Area private school enrolments aren't feeling the sting of the slumping economy...

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2. Focused Boards the Key to School Success

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Your can not live with them, you cannot live without them. This is the feeling of many people who sit on boards or work with or for them. However, it does not have to always be that way; at least not if they are functioning properly.

As organizational leaders, trustees not only focus on compliance, legal requirements, hiring and firing the CEO, and fundraising, but also stewardship. This means ensuring that an effective strategic plan is developed, implemented, monitored, and operationalized with the administration of board committees. On top of this, boards need to set performance standards, measure efficacy, and build and develop the board itself.

Here are seven pillars to effective governance.

1). Understand Your Mission or Purpose:

A firm understanding of the school’s mission will aid trustees in helping to oversee policies, programs, and priorities that meet the school’s purpose.

2). Understand Your Values and Beliefs:

This guides how you behave towards your staff, students, parents, and community. This governs how you interact with the rest of your school and provides the means by which the mission is accomplished and how you serve your community. The board is charged with the execution of the mission is in keeping with the values.

3). Knowing What Success Is:

You must understand what represents success for your school and what the mission and values lead to by way of success. To realize the mission, how will the board go about this? The most effective approach is through a strategic plan.

4). Identify Your Priorities:

Your priorities are governed by your mission and describe what your school does. You need to clearly define these or you will have no focus and will cause burn out. Knowing your priorities will determine your school’s actions. These are conveyed through your plan’s goals and objectives.

5). Execute Your Strategies

Your school’s strategies refer to your strategic plan and are based on your mission and values. Your strategies (which are really your goals) inform your board, staff, and community how their interconnected activities combine to make the school successful. These will allow your board to confront difficult issues and make proactive choices. Good boards will oversee implementation stay aligned with their strategies.

6). Measure CEO Performance:

The board’s mandate is to evaluate the CEO’s effectiveness in carrying out the mission and priorities of the strategic plan. Board leadership requires an effective relationship with the CEO. This is accomplished through regular performance reviews based on the priorities of the plan and the degree to which the CEO carries them out.

7). Develop Leaders:

The board’s role is to cultivate and develop its trustees and CEO’s as effective leaders. Your school depends on a commitment to growth who serves your community. Ensuring that your board and CEO receive learning opportunities is key. Board leadership requires that governors understand their roles and keep focused on effective governance as the means to the end.

Achieving the mission.

To find out more about our firm’s board governance services and how we can help improve your board’s effectiveness, please email HEG at info@halladayeducationgroup.com to discuss your needs or click on the following link for more information:

Click here: http://www.halladayeducationgroup.com/online_assessments.php

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To your success,

Douglas Halladay

President and Founder

Halladay Education Group Inc.

Email: info@halladayeducationgroup.com

www.HalladayEducationGroup.com