MAUI — Whether your board is "rubber stamp" or "watch dog" what you want it to be is a "challenger," according to Mary Beth Spuck, CEO of The Paragon Group.

The challenger board, as defined by the Filene Research Institute research she cited, is one that is able to be the necessary monitor of credit union activities while remaining sensitive to changing member needs. "While it is difficult to bring that together, it is possible and one of the ways to do that is the board assessment," Spuck said. However, a show of hands demonstrated that few in the room of nearly 100 attendees performed volunteer assessments.

Volunteer assessments are really not so much about past performance, Spuck explained, as they are future oriented. The key questions to answer are: Where are we, and how do we improve from there. There are a variety of ways to approach assessments, too. The entire board can be assessed, or it can look at individuals. There's a peer feedback model, board chair assessment or a 360-degree overview where management assesses the board. This last version, she quipped, is also "where we see the most heartburn."