Ethics & General Responsibilities

District Official Training

Jennifer Nelson

In This Section:

  • General Responsibilities of Board Members
  • Employee/Supervisor Relations
  • Abuse of Position
  • Conflict of Interest & Nepotism
  • Diversity

The Board of conservation district supervisors is the key to the success of the district. They direct the conservation program at the local level. They exercise the primary leadership role in planning and implementing conservation programs. They must provide the strong leadership necessary to involve landowners and occupiers in effective voluntary land management programs, and to foster a strong commitment to soil and water conservation.

As an elected or appointed government official, the conservation district supervisor assumes an obligation to the citizens he represents to carry out a sound resource management program.

 The DACD Supervisors' Handbook  outlines the administrative, programmatic, information/educational and fiduciary responsibilities that are also covered throughout this training series.

The following guidelines are borrowed from  "The Little Book of Boards" by Erik Hanberg .

A Board Manages Itself

The board manages itself in two ways:

Formal means include policies, term limits, governance committee, conflict of interest policy, etc.

Informal ways are often called norms or board culture.

Cultural norms are powerful and self-reinforcing. Their effect on how the board conducts its business can be strong.

Pay attention to the cultural norms and look for opportunities to make changes if there are norms you would like to improve.

Summary of the Overall Responsibilities of the Board

Your First Responsibility- Attending Meetings

Your experience on a board will be mostly spent either in meetings or reading documents in preparation for meetings.

Preparing for a Board Meeting

  • Know when the meeting is well in advance.
  • Read all the material.
  • Eat and use the restroom before meetings.
  • Show up 5-minutes early.

At the Meeting

A board is at its best when there are debates and discussions about the important matters affecting the nonprofit. All viewpoints should be heard.

It is important to speak up or ask a question at least once every meeting.

Start your ideas with the phrase “in my opinion” or “I feel.”

A board with a variety of experiences and viewpoints produces the best results. That only works if board members are willing to listen to one another.

Why is someone advocating for a position that you don’t agree with? What do they see that you don’t?

After the Meeting

Ideas for self-evaluation survey questions after a board meeting:

Employee/ Supervisor Relationships

“To cultivate the trust, respect, candor, and communication that characterize a healthy partnership between a board and staff,  BoardSource  recommends a number of key practices, including the following:

  • Regular check-ins between the executive and chair. Open and consistent communication channels between the executive and the board chair help build a strong working relationship and surface issues and challenges before they get bigger.
  • A commitment to “no surprises.” For both the executive and the board, it’s important to share openly and honestly, including when there’s bad news. This is especially important between the executive and the chair, who set the tone for the relationship between the executive and the board as a whole.
  • Thoughtful reflection on performance. One of the board’s essential responsibilities is to annually evaluate the executive’s performance and provide honest feedback on successes and challenges. Equally important, however, is that the board assesses its own performance."

Ethics

Ethics matters. On this, everybody agrees. The CEO will tell you that. The ethics seminar leader will tell you that. Even the staffer who was catching up on email while half-listening to that last ethics webinar everybody had to watch will tell you that. Recognizing the importance of ethics is one thing. But getting people to actively engage with the issues that workplace ethics presents is another.

From  "How to make Ethics Training Stick"  on AssociationsNow.com

According to  a study from the Ethics and Compliance Initiative , "82 percent of employees say that training is relevant to their job, but only 48 percent say they apply it to their job."

Delaware does not have a formal oath of office for Conservation District Board Supervisors as some other states do, but there are a number of ethical issues that supervisors need to keep in mind.

Abuse of Position

No state employee, state officer or honorary state official shall accept other employment, any compensation, gift, payment of expenses or any other thing of monetary value under circumstances in which such acceptance may result in any of the following:

(1) Impairment of independence of judgment in the exercise of official duties;

(2) An undertaking to give preferential treatment to any person;

(3) The making of a governmental decision outside official channels; or

(4) Any adverse effect on the confidence of the public in the integrity of the government of the State.

Conflict of Interest

"Any private or personal interest sufficient to influence or appear to influence the objective exercise of the entity’s official or professional responsibilities."

A conflict of interest can relate to you, a family member, or a business or organization in which you have a financial interest.

It's not uncommon for a farmer on a district board, for example, to attend a meeting in which their own application for cost-share funding is reviewed. In these situations, it's appropriate for the district official to refrain from discussion of the issue (and to be willing to leave the room if the issue is sensitive) and to abstain from voting.

Diversity

"In accordance with Federal law and U.S. Department of Agriculture policy, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability.” If you've worked with USDA or the districts, or have been on your SCD board for some time, this is likely a familiar phrase. However, discussions around diversity shouldn't be limited to avoiding discrimination.

An awareness of diversity recognizes that different perspectives are valuable to serving to your community effectively. Ensuring that the diversity of the local community is reflected among the decision-makers helps to ensure that programs and services meet the needs of that community.

The  NACD Board of Directors Statement on Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity  was adopted in the Summer 2020 to document the importance of this principle to the organization.

In addition, NRCS addresses " historically underserved" producers  specifically in their programs, recognizing that socially disadvantaged, beginning, limited resource, and veteran farmers and ranchers have unique circumstances and concerns.

The Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts is working with their partners on a project to increase participation of USDA programs in agriculture and conservation among socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. One goal of the project is to overcome the legacy of historical barriers that these farmers experienced in obtaining services in the past. Visit the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts  "Conservation and Agriculture Reach Everyone" (CARE) Program  to learn more.

The Oklahoma CARE program goals include 1) building relationships between socially disadvantaged producers, USDA and conservation districts at the local, state, regional and national levels, and 2) Cultivating leadership of socially disadvantaged producers to increase their knowledge of and participation in USDA programs.

Additional Resources

Questions for Today

  • What are the unique perspectives and personal and professional experiences that you bring to your leadership?
  • Are there perspectives from the community that are missing in your district board?
  • Are there any aspects of "board culture" that need attention?

Next Topic: Roles and Responsibilities of Local, State and National Association and Partners

The Oklahoma CARE program goals include 1) building relationships between socially disadvantaged producers, USDA and conservation districts at the local, state, regional and national levels, and 2) Cultivating leadership of socially disadvantaged producers to increase their knowledge of and participation in USDA programs.