6 Steps to Follow When Writing Any Formal Team Charter

The church I served operated using the Carver Policy Governance method when it comes to senior leadership. It's a "staff-led" model, with the Leadership Team functioning as the "board" defining the "end" of the organization. The leadership team holds the senior pastor accountable for the church's overall performance as he determines the "means" for reaching the organization's ends. Pretty simple, huh?

Also included in Carver Policy Governance is the board's occasional creation of "committees" to accomplish specific projects or address specific church issues. For many years, the Leadership Team functioned on its own without the creation of any committees.

In recent years, the Leadership Team chartered a "Finance Team" and subsequently approved a formal "Charter" for the team. Take a look ...

Finance Team Charter

The Finance Team Charter formalizes the team, outlining its duties and responsibilities and authority relative to the Leadership Team. It's documented as a "policy" in a Ministry Management System. 

Here are the six steps in the process of creating a team charter:

1. Purpose, Scope, Responsibility, And Definitions - At the beginning of the policy document, record the details of how the policy fits into the rest of the organization. Where does it begin and end? What's the purpose of the policy? Who is responsible? Are there any special terms that should be defined?
2. Team Purpose - Spell out the specific purpose of the team in this section. Why does the team exist? What was the team chartered to do?
3. Leadership - How is the team led? Who is the team leader, and what is their authority?
4. Membership - Write a section on how the team will run in terms of membership. How does one become a member? What qualifications must they have? What is the term of a member, and how are new members identified and selected?
5. Authority, Duties, Responsibilities, And Regular Activities - Does the team have any specific authority, or is it simply a team of advisers? What is the meeting frequency, and what's on the agenda? How are minutes kept, and where are they stored?
6. Dissolution - How and why can the team be dissolved? What reporting is required upon dissolution?

That's it! Use this outline and read the Finance Team Charter as a template for each section, and you're good to go!