CEO chapter: Board of Directors

[John Exley]

Hi everyone,

I am the new President of the Clarkson University chapter of CEO in northern NY. We have had some major issues with our faculty advisor this semester, ultimately leading to his resignation. We are just now finalizing the process of selecting a new advisor and are actually going the route of having 2 "co-advisors". I've included the preliminary contract for the advisor. What is your opinion on having 2 advisors (one hands-off, one more active)?

Also, I have had the idea of creating some sort of "Board of Directors" for our chapter. I'm not sure what it'd be comprised of, but have thought of assembling 5-10 local entrepreneurs and CEO alumni. I am not sure if location to Clarkson will play a role in the ultimate creation of this concept and am still in the midst of fleshing this idea out. What do you all think of this? Do any of you have a board of advisors or directors for your chapters?

I also am unsure as to the incentive for serving on the 'Board'. Do you think that an entrepreneur would do it for free just to help develop entrepreneurial leaders? I thought that possibly having the 'Board' provide funding would be very beneficial in improving our members' undergraduate experience. It would introduce a whole new element of protecting shareholders' value and paying investors back, etc. But do you think having them determine the club's direction would be too hands-on? Where do they fit in with our organization's daily life? I initially thought a meeting at the beginning and perhaps 3/4 point of the semester with the 'board' would be acceptable. Developing relationships with entrepreneurs would open up so many opportunities for students and members of CEO.

The 'board' would provide access into many professional networks as well. But anyways, that is a thought I've had for our chapter. I would greatly appreciate your input and advice for this concept.

Thanks a lot,

John Exley

[Matt Wilson]

Hey John, we've got several "advisers" at Bryant. We have one "official" adviser who is always available to help us out with whatever we need. We also have the head of our entrepreneurship program involved as well as several other entrepreneurship faculty.

Honestly, I think the faculty should just be there for support and not involved with the decision making process. We are very careful to keep our CEO chapter 100% student run and only rely on the bureaucracy of our University when we need to.

You don't want too many people with too much decision making power advising you--but on the other hand you want them to feel important to the organization, without having to do too much.

Make sure they are there for stuff like getting judges for competitions, utilizing their network of contacts, having pull within the school, pushing CEO in the classroom and stuff like that.

[Anne Crook]

Our chapter at Wichita State doesn't have a declared "board" but I do usually have to report to several different people when making decisions. It gets difficult if your advisors are not meeting among themselves as well as wiht you. I have one advisor for the chapter but also have to report to the director of our Center for Entrepreneurship and other faculty members. The message seems to get lost in these situations unless I meet separately with each one of them. My advice would be that a board of directors can work as long as that group of people are all meeting at the same time you are reporting/requesting advice/etc.

I agree that you should focus on keeping the organization student-run. Sometimes even experienced entrepreneurs or faculty can be stuck in the "traditional ways" and have trouble letting students run the show.

Our group will also be searching for a new advisor during the next semester so let me know how everything goes or if you come up with any other good ideas, feel free to share!