From the classroom to the boardroom

Talk about learning by doing.

I've spent the past year studying governance, audit committee roles and other things about corporate boards.

But understanding their real ins and outs is something that can't truly be taught at business school.

The way to really find out: join a board.

However, getting onto a corporate board is tough. Corporations need experienced directors who bring solid strategic, industry and organizations skills to the table to effectively satisfy the needs of the shareholders.

But there is another place to gain those crucial director skills: in the not-for-profit sector.

"All of you should really try to get on a board, especially a charity. It's an invaluable experience," one of my professors advised.

It was the second time in as many months that a professor had encouraged my class to get involved in an organization at the director level.

Getting onto a non-profit board opens up a slew of opportunities. That's as true for an MBA student as it is for people already in the working world looking to diversify their résumé as well as help a needy cause.

One of the first benefits: expanding your network of contacts.

Scores of active and retired executives, many in a position to hire or with close ties to management, are involved in charity organizations at the board level.

Talk about an opportunity to connect with executives you likely wouldn't get to by simply picking up a phone and requesting an informational interview.

For the MBA who will be seeking a job after graduation, making those connections and having them see you in action on a board can only be helpful.

Next, it provides hands-on experience on the inner workings of a board and how to effectively deal with them -- lessons and skills almost every manager is bound to put to use over a career.

And then there's the decision-making experience. Boards, after all, are where crucial organizational decisions are made - from the selection of leadership to approving budgets to governance situations to having final say on major strategic issues.

As well, since very few non-profit organizations have the resources of a corporation, directors often have to also take active roles within the charity, whether crunching numbers, promoting events or spearheading logistics issues -- all of which can provide valuable hands-on résumé-building experience in areas such as finance, marketing and operations management.

Finally, being part of a board gives directors a chance to support a cause they feel personally passionate about.

But it's not only about what I'll get out of it. Surely, the more experience one gets in dealing with the vital issues that boards face, the better that person will be as a director -- which improves the organization, the services it provides and eventually society as a whole.

Of course, sitting on a board is a significant commitment that can involve hours each week, often during nights and weekends. Amid recent high-profile corporate scandals, expectations for directors have risen in recent years. And there is increasing concern about the legal liability of directors (which is why my professor advised that nobody join a board that doesn't have directors-and-officers' liability insurance).

For some, another concern could be the process of finding a needy not-for-profit - which is where organizations like Toronto-based Altruvest Charitable Services come into play.

Altruvest is the parent of boardmatch.org, which has placed more than 1,300 members on the boards of more than 400 charitable organizations, according to its website, which, incidentally, was recommended by my professor as a starting point for students interested in pursuing a director position.

In Canada, there are more than one million directors on charitable boards, "and many have little or no training as to their roles and responsibilities before assuming the directorship," Altruvest also explains on its website.

That's why, in addition to helping charities find directors, it also offers education programs that teach directors the ins and outs of effective governance as well as leadership skills to supplement the learning done while sitting on a board.

After weighing the pros and cons, I decided to seek a directorship position, and at an organization with which I was already involved at the grassroots level.

For the past six years, I have helped organize a fundraiser for brain tumour research, in memory of my younger brother, who passed away in 2001.

A day after sending an e-mail to the executive director of the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada requesting information on how it recruits directors, she called me to say that, coincidentally, the board was considering opening up a new non-voting "intern director" position.

Organizations will sometimes allow an interested candidate to apprentice on a board, I learned -- giving them a chance to learn the ropes while still working on projects, sitting on committees and having the same governance responsibilities as any other director.

At the BTFC, the position would only be for a year but it would provide an excellent opportunity to test the waters before considering a voting BTFC director position, which requires a commitment of three years, the executive explained.

"Would you be interested in something like that?" she asked.

"Absolutely," I replied, adding that I was excited about the possibility of combining all of the hard work I've done so far at business school with the good work I would be doing on the BTFC's board.

If it boosts my knowledge of how boards operate and helps my career, well, so much the better.

Richard Bloom is a former Report on Business writer who has enrolled in York University's Schulich School of Business to obtain an MBA.