What is your role as a chamber board member? 

I get to meet a lot of board members and one the questions that gets played on repeat is, "As a board member, how can I best help my chamber or economic development organization?" 

When I served on a board for the first time, it was shared with me that I was there for one of three reasons... for my time, my talent or my treasure. But I don't see that same equation in place for the most dynamic chambers I've witnessed... 

I was working with a chamber outside Houston Texas a few years back and prior to my presentation to the board, I was taking note of how my friend Keri - the chamber CEO - had organized her board into focus areas and how these board members seemed so much more engaged than any other board I had ever seen before. 

Here are three simple steps you can use to clarify the roles of board members at your chamber or EDC: 

1. Create focus areas called Governance, Internal and External. Governance is your executive board committee. Internal is operations, member engagement, membership structure and strategy. External is public policy, community relations, partners and the like.

2. Ask board members to serve where their strength is needed. 

3. Organize your board agenda -- and even where in the room board members sit -- to create these sub-boards of governance, internal and external.