AGB History final highres - March/April 2021 - ABG26

Almost immediately the program of the
Association burgeoned, and since 1974 has
moved steadily ahead.
A summary account of the highlights
of this third major stage in AGB's development may be extracted from the annual
report of the president. The total Lilly support amounted to more than one million
dollars over four years, the funds being
allocated to several different projects,
which had been awaiting just such finance.
One wonders whether such a grant five
years earlier would not have hastened the
growth and effectiveness of the Association.
That thought did occur to those who were
struggling to bring AGB forward.
On the other hand, it can be argued
that if not nine years of shape-up, at
least substantial time was required to
determine the ultimate viability of the
idea itself. But let us turn to the steps
that were made possible by the large and
timely grant, and by others that came
along in the seven-year period, 1974-81.
At the end of that review, let us also consider afresh some of the basic issues still
confronting the governing boards across
the nation, and thus confronting AGB as
well.

1974 Trustee Information Center,
Trustee Leadership Program
The centerpiece of the Lilly-funded effort
was a three-year project that resulted in
creation of AGB's Board-Mentor Service,
to which all AGB member boards have
access at low cost for guidance in carrying
out self-study and board improvement
workshops. Since the Board-Mentor Service became available in 1977, more than
150 boards have taken advantage of the
opportunity and have again and again
expressed satisfaction and enthusiasm with
the results.
Also in 1974, with the aid of a smaller
grant from Lilly, the Trustee Information

Clearinghouse and Library, now known as
the Trustee Information Center, was inaugurated, the largest informational resource
anywhere available to trustees.
A Board Self-Evaluation Project, funded
by the Ford Foundation, in due course
produced " Board Self- Study and Criteria "
for use by boards of private and public
four-year and two-year institutions. (A subsequent grant from the Ford Foundation
enabled AGB to develop similar materials
for multicampus and state coordinating
agencies.)
The Association was incorporated and
bylaws written and approved by the board
of directors.
AGB's two regular publications, AGB
Reports and AGB Notes, were redesigned
into new formats with the Association's
new logo, and were given a change in
periodicity and size. News Notes became
a 12-months- a-year newsletter while
Reports, in a conspicuous 11- by-6-inch
format, adopted a bimonthly schedule of 48
to 64 pages. An editorial by the president,
" Washington Paper Storm, " was credited
by the IRS with helping to bring about a
change in IRS regulations reducing paperwork demanded of institutions.
The corporate resources program was
inaugurated, destined to grow to a level of
well over $100,000 a year in unrestricted
funding.

1976 Financial Information
Project; an AGB Film
In collaboration with the National Association of College and University Business
Officers (NACUBO), and supported by a
grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation,
AGB launched a project to meet trustee
needs in the area of financial information.
Its outcome was publication of Financial
Responsibilities of Governing Boards of
Colleges and Universities, which has found
wide use among boards, presidents and

26 AGB: A CENTENNIAL HISTORY | March 2021

business officers.
A film titled " College and University
Trusteeship " and a series of filmstrips with
sound, on tenure, budgeting, fundraising
and other issues, proved especially valuable
to the Board Mentors, the first cohort of
whom completed their training in 1976.
Also in 1976, a new idea was tried out
and promptly became a regular feature of
AGB national conferences: special seminars
for new trustees and for board chairmen
and CEO's.

1977 Presidential Selection and
Evaluation
A study of presidential selection and
presidential evaluation was carried out
under the direction of John W. Nason,
the results of which were incorporated in
two more Nason publications made available to AGB members in 1978 and 1979.
Also in 1977: A set of model bylaws
designed especially for small independent
college boards was drawn up with the aid
of competent attorneys, and a study was
carried out for AGB that for the first time
provided an accurate count of trustees,
governing boards and campuses, with an
analysis of trustee characteristics.

1978 An AGB Three-Year Plan; the
Trustee Selection Project
A several months' effort by the staff, with
solid input from the Board of Directors,
produced the Association's first long-range
plan outlining directions and goals for the
next three years.
Also in 1978: Financial Responsibilities
and Presidential Search were published,
and the first of a series of workshops for
professional board staff secretaries was
held.
A grant from the Carnegie Corporation
helped launch one of AGB's most significant projects, a study by a blue-ribbon
national commission of the processes of
AGB History final highres - March/April 2021

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