Journal-News.com

HAMILTON — Butler County United Way will become the latest nonprofit to use a model that governs through ends and means.

United Way's board of trustees is in the midst of incorporating Policy Governance, which separates an organization's purpose and issues among its board and director.

For example, a board of directors implements an agency's mission and develops the criteria called "ends," while the executive director manages staffing and programs, which is the "means."

"Under Policy Governance, the board is responsible for listening to the community to determine the right 'ends' policies," said Maureen Noe, president and chief executive officer of the Butler County United Way. "The 'ends' policies become United Way's focus and drive those results."

"The Policy Governance model offers control without meddling," said Miriam Carver, theorist and consultant for Policy Governance. She is the wife of Dr. John Carver, who created the model.

"Basically, the board of directors controls the big issues or long-term purpose. A board member is justified to be worried about what's going on. You can't know every detail about an organization," she said.

The model was created and developed in Atlanta 30 years ago and is increasingly being introduced to other businesses globally, Carver said. She served as a consultant last January to the local United Way.

"It clarifies the roles between the board and management," said Rick H. Jones, executive director of the Fitton Center for Creative Arts. The Fitton Center incorporated the model when it opened 16 years ago.

Noe, along with other local United Way officials, received training in the model last year in Atlanta.

In 2005, the Butler County Alcohol and Drug Addiction

Services incorporated Policy Governance with the help of Butler County Department of Job and Family Services Director Bruce Jewett and Noe, who served as their board members.

"It's a model that provides a whole set of principals and how the board ought to operate," said Dr. John Bohley, executive director of the Butler County ADAS board and United Way volunteer.

"It gives clear principles of roles and boundaries that the executive director of the organization that's acceptable," he said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2180 or ch

ubbard

@coxohio.com.