Thanks for writing to us at the Community Tool Box. The Tool Box does contain several sections on organizational boards, in particular Chapter 9, Section 4, on Developing an Ongoing Board of Directors, at https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/structure/organizational-structure/board-of-directors/main, which we think provides a solid overview. You may also benefit from the related materials in Chapter 9, Section 5 and 6 – see the Tool Box table of contents for details.
There is a large literature on this topic, and other good sources should not be difficult to find. For example, you might check out William Bowen’s The Board Book, even though parts of it refer to corporate as vs. nonprofit boards.
Regarding the board’s role in planning, there are no official rules about this, for each organization is different. In our experience, most boards should and do in fact have a planning role, but this itself can take several forms – either through the board working as a whole, or in a subcommittee, or in a subcommittee together with an executive director. The arrangements may properly vary, depending on the nature of your organization and the people and resources on hand. The task is to find an agreed-upon arrangement that will work well for you.
We hope this much may be helpful to you, and wish you and your organization many successes in the future.
