Dear PFLAG Supporter,

With new board members comes a shift in board culture, including communication preferences! The key to having a strong board is having clear and transparent communication with one another and agreed upon shared values. Now is the time to set some ground rules for how you want to communicate and operate as a board moving forward. How will your chapter board collaborate to ensure your chapter thrives?

Here are a few topics and related discussion questions to help ensure clear communication among your board members.

• Set boundaries and expectations 
  • How do we effectively communicate, and how do we want to do so as a board?
  • What is the most reliable form of communication for everyone? (e.g. text, email, Slack, etc.)
  • What days and times can everyone be responsive? 
  • What should we expect for turnaround time for response?
• Establish group norms for board meetings and communications
  • Is our board process for providing feedback, and raising concerns effective and inclusive?
  • How can we ensure all perspectives are heard/considered during discussions?
  • When do board members feel most or least comfortable sharing thoughts?
• Talk about PFLAG’s and your shared values
  • Why are we part of PFLAG? 
  • How can we bring our “why” into our board’s culture and norms?
  • How do PFLAG’s mission, vision, and values resonate with us?
• Establish a process for conflict resolution
  • How do we handle conflicts among board members?
  • How can we ensure that conflicts are addressed promptly and constructively?
  • Do we need to establish or revise a process for conflict mediation?
  • How can we create an environment where it’s okay to disagree? 
• Check in with each other
  • How can we check in regularly about how we’re feeling as individuals separate from our PFLAG roles? About how we are handling the PFLAG workload?

In order to keep communication flowing and preserve chapter board information, consider working through our Chapter Administration Procedures Template, which allows you to keep board procedures and other information in one place! This can be a great introduction to starting a chapter Governance Document, which is your chapter’s guide on how to be a chapter. If you’d like support working through these conversations—or getting them started—please reach out to me!

Canva Corner

If you’re in our PFLAG Canva team, you may have received an email on Friday by mistake about a setting we turned on. Rest assured: no action is needed or required at this time. The change does not affect PFLAG chapters and nothing in Canva is changing for chapters. 

If you are not signed up for a free Canva team account, sign up here! Have questions? Reach out to Jackson Alder (they/them), our Senior Digital Strategist, at jalder@pflag.org.

Rural Think Tank Alert

November’s Rural Think Tank will focus on election response, and the ways that rural communities will be affected by election outcomes at the local, state, and national level. 

Join us on Thursday, November 14th at 4pm PT / 7pm ET to discuss whatever results we know—or are awaiting—and the next step of course, is figuring out how your PFLAG chapter will be affected and what action steps need to be taken.

Register now to participate in this election-focused facilitated peer discussion space for rural chapter leaders.

Regional Roundup

Welcoming new board members requires a few steps, both for incumbent board members and new ones! Use this checklist to go through the administrative steps for leadership transition and use PFLAG National’s onboarding resources for new board members.

And just a note about our ongoing bylaws update project: After annual responsibilities wrap up in Spring 2025, you may hear from me about bylaws updates if your last update was before 2019. Even if you’ve updated your bylaws more recently, feel free to reach out and we can work on your chapter’s bylaws updates together.

Stay safe,

Abby Shuler (she/her)

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