Meet The Editor

Jeff Stratton has edited Board & Administrator since 1992. As the Board Doctor, he has advised thousands of executive directors and board members on issues like prevention of micromanagement of the executive director, developing effective board policy, creating an effective board and administrator team, and how to hold productive board meetings.

Jeff has also edited newsletters, books and looseleaf manuals on topics such as nonprofit personnel management, board governance, fundraising, nonprofit board member recruitment and new board member orientation.

He is a graduate of the University of Iowa.

See the Top 10 Questions asked of the Board Doctor on the Board Issues Hotline!

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Jeff Stratton, The Board Doctor, has helped thousands of nonprofit executives like you. He’s on call when you need one-on-one guidance for your board-management problems. Here are the top 10 questions he has consulted on:

• The board wants to survey staff about my performance. What can I do?

• The board wants to initiate a 360 degree performance evaluation for my appraisal. What can I do?

• My board won't raise money for the organization. What can I do to teach them it's part of the job to support the organization's fundraising activities?

• My board doesn't know what the staff does. They've asked me to send them all employee job descriptions for a review. I don't think this is their job. What do I do?

• The board wants to meet without me to discuss my performance. How should I respond?

• My board has never evaluated my performance before. Can you send me some forms and guidance?

• I have a board member who is asking me to account for how I spend my time each day. What should I do?

• We're struggling to recruit new board members. Do you have any suggestions to improve our recruiting?

• Can you send me a board policy on topic XYZ?

• I have a board member who takes staff calls and listens to their complaints about me. It's a back channel of communication from employees to the board. How can I get the board to respect and support the chain of command and let me manage employees?