Welcome. This is the front door for new directors.
It exists so that nobody has to work out how this board runs by tripping over it. Everything we would otherwise expect you to absorb by osmosis — or, worse, discover in your first meeting — is written down here instead.
This is not a test, and it is not a probation period. Nobody is going to quiz you on the bylaws. Orienting here means being handed the map, not being asked to prove you already had one.
Read it however works for you. Skim it, jump to what you need, close the tab, come back on a better day. You will not have read everything before your first meeting and that is expected — the list below is ordered so that the parts that matter most come first.
If You Only Read Three Things
About forty minutes, and it covers what you are actually taking on.
- Board Roles & Responsibilities — what the job is, what we ask, and the list of things we deliberately do not ask you for.
- Conflict of Interest Policy — the duty you are most likely to bump into in a real meeting.
- Where the Money Went — the actual financial position, including the part where we spend far more than we take in. You should know that before you join, not after.
What to Read
The governing documents
- Bylaws — the rules underneath everything. Long, and you do not need all of it. The sections that will come up: §2.5–§2.6 (attending remotely counts as being present; quorum is a majority of the whole Board), §2.8 (acting without a meeting needs unanimous consent), §4.1 (which officers we must have), and Article V — which is the part that protects you.
- Board & Governance — who is currently on the board, meeting cadence, and how decisions get made.
The policies you are agreeing to be bound by
- Conflict of Interest Policy
- Whistleblower & Concern Reporting Policy — including the section on your right to report to outside agencies without our permission. Worth reading before you need it.
- Document Retention & Destruction Policy — what we keep, what we delete, and when deleting has to stop.
- Gift Acceptance Policy
- Expense Policy — how we classify spending, and why our program share is 88%.
What we are
The same front door everyone else comes through. Read it when you have room.
- Welcome Aboard: Start Here — the community onboarding page.
- The Covenant — our code of conduct. It applies to the Board too, and the Board Member Agreement asks you to be held to it.
- Mission, Creed, and Philosophy.
- Transparency Log — the fastest way to understand how we operate, because it is where we record our own errors and corrections alongside everything else.
What to Sign
Two things, both once you are elected.
- Board Member Agreement — signed on joining. Confirms what you have read, what you commit to, and what we commit to you. There is a question about access needs; you do not have to explain why.
- Conflict of Interest Statement — filed on appointment, then once a year. Most people have something to disclose. That is normal and expected. Having a conflict is fine; not saying so is the problem.
Both forms take a signature at the end. If signing with a mouse or a finger does not work for you, tell the President and we will take it another way. If filling in a form is itself the barrier, say so — we will take your answers out loud, over email, or in a call, and transcribe them for your review.
Getting Set Up
- Meeting invitations. Tell us which address to use and whether calendar invites are useful to you or just noise.
- Discord, if you want it. Most of our day-to-day happens there. It is not required for board service — board business reaches you by email and in meetings regardless. Lurk or chat according to your social comfort.
- Access needs. Whatever you told us on the agreement, we will come back to you about before your first meeting rather than at it.
Your First Meeting
You will be asked to vote on things. A few things worth knowing in advance:
- Abstaining is a real option. If you do not feel informed enough to vote on something, say so and abstain. That is a better outcome for us than a vote cast to avoid looking unprepared.
- Ask the naive question. It is almost always the one three other people wanted to ask. A board where nobody asks is a board that is not doing its job.
- Attending remotely is full attendance — §2.5, not a courtesy.
- If a conflict comes up, say so at the time. The minutes record it, you step out of that decision, and everything continues.
What We Owe You in the First Ninety Days
Onboarding is our obligation, not your homework.
- A walk-through with the President — the finances, the conversion to public charity, and what is currently hard. Ask anything.
- The last two sets of minutes, so you know what was decided before you arrived and why.
- Board papers in advance of every meeting — and if they arrive too late to read, that is our failure to fix, not yours to absorb.
- A straight answer about the deficit. We spend more than we take in, we publish it, and you will never learn our position from a leaked document.
Onboarding here does not end. It is progressive, project-based, and iterative — the way getting to know people actually goes. If something on this page turned out to be wrong or missing when you arrived, tell us and we will fix the page. That is what it is for.
Orienting is not an entrance exam. It is us handing you the map we wish someone had handed us.
Document ID: SF-GOV-ONBOARD-BOARD-1.0
Status: Draft — pending adoption by the Board of Directors
Companion to: Board Roles & Responsibilities (SF-GOV-BOARD-1.0)