SHC Policy Wiki

4.0 GLOBAL GOVERNANCE-MANAGEMENT CONNECTION
Because of the nature of Cooperative government and the organizational structure of the MSU Student Housing Cooperative, policies of the board shall reflect the term Executive Team, intending the inclusion of the elected President, the Executive Director.

The board’s primary connection to the operational organization, its achievements and conduct will be through its Executive Team.

4.1 POLICY TITLE: UNITY OF CONTROL
Only officially passed motions of the board are binding on the Executive Team.

Accordingly:

1. 4.1.1 Decisions or instructions of individual board members, officers, or committees are not binding on the Executive Team except in rare instances when the board has specifically authorized such exercise of authority.
2. 4.1.2 In the case of board members or committees requesting information or assistance without board authorization, the Executive Team can refuse such requests that require, in their opinion, a material amount of staff time, or funds, or is disruptive.

4.2 POLICY TITLE: ACCOUNTABILITY OF THE EXECUTIVE TEAM
The Executive Team, acting in the roles of Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operations Officer, are the board’s primary link to operational achievement and conduct, so that authority and accountability of staff, as far as the board is concerned, is considered the authority and accountability of the Executive Team.

Accordingly:

1. 4.2.1 The board, as a group, or as individual board members will never give instructions to persons who report directly or indirectly to the Executive Team.
2. 4.2.2 The board as a group will not evaluate, either formally or informally, any staff other than the individual members of the executive team, including the president and the executive director.
3. 4.2.3 The board will view Executive Team performance as identical to organizational performance, so that organizational accomplishment of board stated Ends and avoidance of board proscribed means will be viewed as successful Executive Team performance.

4.3 POLICY TITLE: DELEGATION TO THE EXECUTIVE TEAM
The board will instruct the Executive Team through Board-approved Ends and Executive Limitations, allowing the Executive Team to use any reasonable interpretation of these policies.

Accordingly:

1. 4.3.1 As long as the Executive Team uses any reasonable interpretation of the board’s Ends and Executive Limitations policies, the Executive Team are authorized to establish all further policies, make all decisions, take all actions, establish all practices and develop all activities.
2. 4.3.3 The board may change its Ends and Executive Limitations policies. If it does so, the date for compliance with the new policy will be stated. Interpretation and compliance data applies to the existing policy until the effective date stated for the new policy monitoring.

4.4 POLICY TITLE: MONITORING EXECUTIVE TEAM PERFORMANCE
Systematic and rigorous monitoring of Executive Team job performance will be solely against accomplishment of Ends and compliance with Executive Limitations.

Accordingly:

1. 4.4.1 Monitoring is simply to determine the degree to which board policies are being met. Data which does not do this will not be considered to be monitoring data.
2. 4.4.2 The board will acquire monitoring data by one or more of three methods: (a) by internal report, in which the Executive Team discloses compliance information to the board, (b) by external report, in which, an external, disinterested third party selected by the board assesses compliance with board policies, and © by direct board inspection, in which a designated member or members of the board assess compliance with the appropriate policy criteria.
3. 4.4.3 In every case, the standard for compliance shall be any reasonable interpretation of the board policy being monitored.
4. 4.4.4 All policies which instruct the Executive Team will be monitored at a frequency and by a method chosen by the board. The board can monitor any policy at any time by any method, but will ordinarily depend on a routine schedule as presented in Schedule A.