Board Members Collection

Overview

Board members are distinct from staff. They typically have different fields (external organization, term dates, committee) and are displayed differently on your site. While you could add board members to a general Team Members collection with a filter, a separate collection keeps things cleaner.

Recommended fields

Required

• Name (text) — primary field.
• Photo (image) — professional headshot.

Recommended

• Title (text) — their role on the board ("Chair", "Treasurer", "Member").
• Organization (text) — their primary company or affiliation.
• Bio (rich text) — background and qualifications.
• Order (number) — display order (chair first, then officers, then members).

Optional

• Term dates (text) — e.g., "2023-2026".
• Committee (select) — finance, governance, programs, development.
• LinkedIn (url) — professional profile.
• Email (email)
• Headshot (image) — alternate photo for press use.

Why separate from team members?

Board members have fundamentally different attributes:

• They belong to external organizations (not your company).
• They have term dates (staff do not).
• They serve on committees (staff belong to departments).
• They are usually displayed in a simpler format — often just photo, name, title, and organization.

Merging them into a Team Members collection means most fields go unused for one group or the other.

Display patterns

Grid layout

Most board pages use a simple grid: photo, name, title, organization. No detail pages needed. This means you only need 4-5 fields per member.

With bios

If board members have bios, you can either:

• Show them in an expandable accordion below the grid card.
• Give each member their own page (less common for boards).

Tips

1. Order matters — board chair goes first, vice chair second, then other officers, then general members. Use a number order field.
2. Keep it lean — most board pages need fewer than 6 fields per person. Do not over-engineer.
3. Committee field is useful — if you have committee pages, a select field lets you filter board members by committee.
4. Photo is non-negotiable — a board page without photos looks unprofessional. Make photo a recommended field and ensure it is filled.

Board Members vs. Team Members: when to separate

The question of whether to combine board members and staff into a single collection or keep them separate comes up on almost every nonprofit or corporate site.

Keep them separate when:

• Board members have fundamentally different fields (external organization, term dates, committee vs. department, skill set, location).
• Staff pages show different layouts (staff get bio pages, board members only appear in a grid).
• You want independent ordering (board by seniority, staff by department).
• Content editors are different people — board pages are updated by the executive team, staff pages by HR.

Combine them when:

• Your site is small (under 20 total people) and simplicity matters.
• Board members and staff appear in mixed lists (e.g., a "Leadership" page showing the CEO alongside board officers).
• You want to reuse the same card component for both.

If you combine, add a "Type" select field (Board, Staff, Advisory) and a "Display on" multi-select (Board Page, Team Page, About Page) to control where each person appears.

Nonprofit-specific patterns

Advisory boards

Some nonprofits have a separate advisory board. These are typically lower-profile than the main board — no photos or bios, just names and affiliations. You can either add an "Advisory" option to the board member "Title" field or create a simple list section on the board page.

Board officer rotation

Nonprofits with rotating board officers (new chair each year) need to update order and title fields periodically. Consider a "Former board member" boolean to archive past members without deleting them — their involvement may be cited in annual reports or historical timelines.

Linking board members to programs

If board members oversee specific programs (common in larger nonprofits), add a multi-reference field linking to a Programs collection. This enables a "Board oversight" section on program pages and a "Programs overseen" section on board member profiles.

Corporate governance pages

For publicly traded companies or organizations with compliance requirements:

• Add Audit Committee and Compensation Committee select or multi-select fields.
• Add a Since date field showing when each member joined the board.
• Consider a Documents reference to a related collection of governance documents, proxy statements, or committee charters.
• Independence status (independent, non-independent) may be required for compliance displays.