Alice Collier Cochran, M. Ed.

Alice Collier Cochran has been an independent consultant since 1985 working to increase the success of nonprofit boards, advisory groups and corporate teams by improving their structure, governance, planning, meetings and decision-making. Her previous careers have included college student personnel, and corporate training and organization development. She developed and managed the quality Work Improvement Network (WIN Teams) for a bank and won an award from The Bureau of National Affairs.

Alice earned her BA in English from Longwood University and her M.Ed. from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has been prepared by BoardSource to conduct their Board Assessment and consult on Effective Non-Profit Governance. She has also been trained by the Drucker Foundation to use their Self-Assessment Tool for Nonprofit Organizations and by CompassPoint in nonprofit organization effectiveness. She piloted the course "Leading Together" for board presidents and executive directors designed by Interaction Associates and the nonprofit The Interaction Institute for Social Change

She served as consulting editor for the American Management Association's training publication: "Facilitating A Workshop" and has been featured in several articles in The Board Member, the BoardSource periodical. She has conducted workshops and presentations on Roberta’s Rules of Order for nonprofit management support organizations (MSO’s) including BoardSource, CompassPoint and The Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership in California.

She has been a member of the board of the San Francisco chapters of The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), the Bay Area Organization Development Network (BAODN), and the local Guild of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF). She is currently on the board of the American Sail Training Association, the Marin Advisory Council of the American Cancer Society and is past president of the Golden Gate Tall Ships Society.

Alice lives in San Rafael, California, loves spending time with family in Maine and enjoys sailing on traditionally rigged sailboats and tall ships.

AUTHOR PROFILE

APPEARED IN THE CENTER FOR VOLUNTEER AND NONPROFIT LEADERSHIP of Marin

Member Profile: Alice Collier Cochran

The Leadership Journal, February 2004

Alice has been connected with The Center since the early 1990’s when it was called The Marin Council of Agencies. “I was serving on several boards, and was looking for information about board governance. I think it started me on a path that has changed my career focus from corporate work to nonprofits.”

She previously had run a quality improvement team program. Applying the Japanese method of consensus, she learned that it was very difficult in our culture. In her nonprofit work she noticed that non-profits generally used the opposite extreme of simple majority rule (50% plus one) and felt constrained by Robert’s Rules of Order, a version of parliamentary procedure written 130 years ago. “I was trying to answer for myself: Who is Robert, and why do non-profits still follow his rules, anyway? The answer and some alternatives to Robert - are included in Roberta’s Rules of Order just published by Jossey-Bass.

“I think I am an accidental author. Much of Roberta’s Rules of Order was written at 35,000 feet and in airports while on business trips. When at home, the Center’s Library was very helpful to me. We’re lucky to have most of the nonprofit periodicals and books all in one place so close to home.”

She facilitates planing meetings and “done-in-a-day” retreats – which she calls “advances”. She’s done this for The Breast Cancer Council, The American Cancer Society Marin Unit, Dominican University, The Marin Education Fund and Sausalito Presbyterian Church. She also helps non-profits simplify their bylaws, define clear roles that engage board members, and create clear policies. She works with large boards to become smaller and more effective, and “phantom boards” to become more active. She adds, “I think I’ve become a “governance geek”. Many of these methods are included in Roberta’s Rules of Order.

Alice presented an overview of Roberta’s Rules of Order at the last Nonprofit Conference. “Being supported by and learning from colleagues is wonderful. Becoming a member of The Center several years ago was a natural thing to do. I love the monthly gathering of external consultants who do very different work. Sharing our approaches is the first step toward possible collaboration to serve our clients better.”