Society, investors, Wall Street, regulators, associations of non-profits, all are placing increased responsibility and liability upon governing boards to protect the interests of those they serve or society at large.
 
The days of cronies playing golf, smoking cigars and meeting for unquestioned blessing of management proposals are swiftly disappearing.  Government has entered the fray with the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation and there is talk of similar standards being applied to non-profits.

The recent surge of books on governance have a recurrent theme, boards need to be more independent of management and need to focus on adding real value to the enterprise and not merely assuring that no harm is done.